


Sophomore Year (Smopkins #2)

by slusher (aesoprock)



Series: Truce [2]
Category: Bully (Video Games)
Genre: Bullworth (Bully), Bullworth Academy, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Light Smut, Love/Hate, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Paranoia, Slow Burn, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:08:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 23
Words: 23,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23747347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aesoprock/pseuds/slusher
Summary: following the events of Trucejimmy and gary have returned to bullworth for their sophomore year.(part 2/2)published 4/20/20 - 6/17/20
Relationships: Jimmy Hopkins/Gary Smith, Jimmy Hopkins/Mandy Wiles (brief)
Series: Truce [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1679089
Comments: 163
Kudos: 54





	1. Back to School

**Author's Note:**

> first chapter what up gamers
> 
> upload schedule might be a little weird sorry brothas

“I am your MOTHER, and you will do what I say!”

Jimmy turned around to face the head that was craning out of the passenger side window. Of course his mom was going to throw a fuss, she always did things like this. Just like last year, he had another new step dad to start off the school year, and the relationship with his mother was sure to fail just like the last five had. “Fine, Mom. I’m sorry, Mr. Wilson, I totally don’t think you’re a pedophile anymore. Now I just think you’re a pussy who can’t even stand up to a sixteen year old boy by yourself without his mother telling him to apologize.”

His mother fumed at him, but she knew that was the best she was getting, because she let it go. “You will treat your step dad nicely when you get back this summer. You hear me? And behave this year, Jimmy. No more fights at the bell tower.”

“What? That wasn’t even my fault!” he said in his defense. Jimmy adjusted the grip on his backpack, which was starting to grow heavy now that he was standing in the middle of the sidewalk, arguing with his mother. Kids were walking into Bullworth’s gates right behind him, and if it weren’t for his mom and her creepy boyfriend, he would be too. He might already be in the dorms by now if it weren’t for her.

“I don’t want to hear it,” she snaps. “I love you, Jimmy. When you get a girlfriend, you’ll understand.”

Jimmy rolled his eyes. He did have a girlfriend over the summer- Zoe- but his mother didn’t like her. At all. He wondered if she remembered that. “I love you too, Mom. If you find any child porn on his phone, don’t act surprised.”

As if she couldn’t take any more, she rolled up the window and gestured for her boyfriend to start driving. Jimmy turned and shook his head, making his way through the gates. He kept an eye out for any… familiar faces.

He didn’t see Petey or Gary, but Petey was probably in the dorms. He was head boy after all.

Jimmy still wasn’t sure how he felt about Gary. They weren’t enemies anymore, which was good, but they weren’t best friends either. He remembered crying after Gary’s parents picked him up, which was actually really embarrassing the more that he thought about it.

But Gary had tears in his eyes too. Maybe he cried just as hard as Jimmy did.

Or maybe he didn’t. There was no way to be sure, but Jimmy knew that he wanted to see Gary again. Bad. Even with Zoe to keep him occupied, he found himself thinking about Gary way more over the summer more than he thought he would. He wandered around town without Zoe often, praying on the off chance that Gary would be out, either alone or with his parents. He didn’t care which. It never happened, though.

While lost in his thoughts, Jimmy spotted someone he knew. Russell. “Hey. How was your summer?” he asked. He didn’t actually care, but he wanted to make conversation anyway. Russell was better than most of the other students, and he cared about him.

“Bad. Summer boring.” Russell smiled at him, and Jimmy knew that he was probably cooped inside his house the whole time. Jimmy felt bad- if he knew where Russell lived, he could’ve hung out with him. 

An image flashed in his mind. It was Gary, sitting in his bedroom…

Gary’s summer had to be a lot worse than Russell’s. “Sorry to hear that. Good to see you again, Russ.” 

Russell only smiled at him. They walked to the dorms together without saying a word, but it was a comfortable silence. 

The two of them walked in to find Petey and a few prefects scrambling around, trying to help everyone to their dorm at once. Jimmy stood in the entrance and watched. 

“Oh! Hey, J… Jimmy,” Petey said when he spotted Jimmy, approaching him awkwardly. Jimmy knew Petey was using him to get out of work, but Jimmy didn’t blame him. The Bullworth’s student body was filled with idiots who couldn’t even find their own rooms, a simple number above the doorframe.

“Hey, Petey.” Jimmy was more excited to see Russell than he was Petey, but it was still nice knowing that Petey was going to suck up to him again this year.

Petey glanced at a paper he held in his hand, then looked up at him. “Uh, your room is the same as before- but can I come in? Need to talk to you.” Unease stirred in Jimmy’s stomach. It was only the first day, but he knew that bad things could happen no matter what day it was. Maybe someone had it out for him, or there were already rumors spreading. 

Jimmy walked to his dorm and let Petey in, shutting the door behind him. As Petey settled into the desk chair on the opposite side of the room, Jimmy slung his bag onto the mattress. “What is it?”

“Uh…”

Jimmy crossed his arms. “How bad is it? Tell me.”

“N.. Not that bad. Just, uh. Have you seen Gary?”

He stepped forward and sat on the edge of his bed, still staring at Petey. “No. What, is it some kind of national emergency? People are still being dropped off. He might not even be here yet.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay,” Petey nodded. “Sorry. Um.. what are you going to do to him? Y’know, this time?”

“What?” he asked, a wave of drowsiness hitting him like a truck. “I’m not doing anything to him.” As soon as Petey left, Jimmy planned on taking a nap.

“Oh.” Petey stood up and started pacing, but stopped when Jimmy got up and stood in his way. “Sorry. Can I stay in here? People are idiots, man, they- they can’t read numbers.”

Jimmy glared at him. “Nah. Come on, head boy… get out there and do your job.”

Petey sighed and made his way to the door, and Jimmy was grateful, until he turned and spoke again. “So are you and Gary friends… now? I don’t see how you can be, he’s insane-”

“Get out, Pete. God.”

He nodded hastily and opened the door, returning to the entrance. Jimmy shut the door after Petey left and sighed, kicking his shoes off and turning to the bed. After sniffing the sheets and blanket to make sure they were clean, he laid down and kicked his backpack off of the mattress. 

He couldn’t sleep, knowing that Gary wasn’t in Bullworth, but he tried anyway.


	2. Find Gary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ma'am this is a mcdonalds parking lot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if anyone wants to help me with another bully fanfic im writing then please do. thanks

Jimmy was starting to lose hope.

It was already five PM, and dinner started at seven. Gary was not there. He wasn’t in his dorm or lounging around the common room like everyone else was. Jimmy asked Petey if Gary’s room had been moved, and Petey said no, and even showed him the paper. Gary’s dorm was right across from Jimmy’s, just like it had been the year before. He asked around a bit- Bucky, Ted, even Russell, and none of them had seen Gary. Nobody was concerned by this, either.

He sat back down on his bed and put his head in his hands, sighing. Everything would be fine- maybe his parents had run out of gas on their way to Bullworth, or they were running late.

That was stupid. Who wouldn’t look at their gas tank? If they had run out, they would’ve been at Bullworth by three. It was five. 

Jimmy started to wonder if Gary had maybe gone back to Happy Volts. He wasn’t thrilled at the idea of visiting him every evening, because he would much rather have Gary in Bullworth with him.. but if Gary was back in Happy Volts, that was fine. He would be able to visit him, and maybe help him get out again. It was better than Gary getting sent to a new school entirely.

But what did Gary do over the summer to get himself thrown back in there?

He stood up, grabbed his skateboard from his backpack and left his dorm, prepared to answer any questions that the prefects threw at him. Why are you leaving? I left something in the car, Mom texted me to come back outside and get it. Why do you have a skateboard? Mom told me she wanted me to leave it with her so I wouldn’t get in trouble. If the prefects asked him to show him the messages, well… he decided he would book it. Getting in trouble was the least of his worries. He had to make sure Gary was okay. 

Jimmy left the dorms, and was surprised when nobody stopped him or bothered to ask what he was doing. There were only a few prefects lingering around, and although they gave him weird looks, they didn’t stop him. Jimmy figured something had gone on in the girls’ dorm, even if male prefects weren’t allowed inside… if there was a real emergency, it wouldn’t matter. 

He heard arguing, and kept on his path to the driveway near town. The sounds grew closer, and Jimmy realized that the “emergency” was here. He might have a difficult time getting into town with the prefects watching him, but if he ran far enough in a short amount of time, they might give up completely.

“Miss, if you could get your hands off of h-”

“I won’t have it!” a woman protested. “He is my son, and I will raise him how I see fit. It is none of your business!” she shrieked, and Jimmy had a feeling this was Gary’s mother. God, Jimmy hated that bitch. He rounded the corner, not caring if he got in trouble. He wanted to see what was going on.

He came at the perfect moment to witness Gary shove his mother backwards into a car. Jimmy hadn’t been around to see what caused it, but he didn’t blame Gary either way. The car had to be theirs, seeing as it was the only one in the driveway. A few prefects lunged forward and held Gary back, while a middle-aged man stood in the street and watched from a distance, a weary look on his face. Jimmy had a feeling that the man was Gary’s father, or maybe a random passerby.

Gary was completely still, unmoving in the arms of the prefects. Jimmy started walking again, hoping he could get Gary away from this… mess. 

“He is my son, goddamn it! Do not touch him, or put your hands on him!” One of the prefects let go of Gary and moved closer to the woman. Gary stood there, looking uninterested.

Jimmy tilted his head, thinking of the things his mother said to him before she left. Compared to this, it felt like nothing. He wondered if Gary’s mother caused a scene everywhere she went.

“Ma’am, we’ve already asked you to leave the premises twice. If we ask you again, we’re going to contact the police.” The man whipped his head around. “Hopkins! Get back in the dorms.” 

Everyone, including Gary, turned to look at Jimmy the second the man called him out. Before he could say anything, someone put a hand on his shoulder. “Boy, leave.”

Jimmy looked up. It was Crabblesnitch. Crabblesnitch left his side and walked to the car, standing next to Gary’s mother and talking to her in a low, calm voice. Jimmy couldn’t hear what he was saying- he was too far away- but he didn’t need to. 

He decided not to go back to the dorms. The prefects could drag him up the stairs if they wanted to, and by then, the whole thing with Gary’s mother would be over. 

“He is my son! I will send him to whatever school I want, and it will not be this wretched place.” She paused, listening to Crabblesnitch’s words. “No! I didn’t do anything like that, I didn’t lay a hand on him- I DID NOTHING VIOLENT!” she screeched, loud enough to give Jimmy chills. Gary was still staring at him. As the prefects moved away from Gary to console his mother, Jimmy nodded his head toward the gate.

“Ma’am, we have eyewitn-”

“I DIDN’T! Tell them, Rob, tell them I did nothing to Gary!” she demanded, her face reddened with anger. Gary started walking across the driveway, stepping up on the sidewalk and standing next to Jimmy. He turned back around to watch everything go down. Neither of them said a word.

Rob- Gary’s dad, apparently, didn’t say anything. He watched Jimmy and Gary, almost happily. Jimmy noticed this and stared at him dead on, remembering the things Gary told him in the library.

He turned to Gary and put a hand on his shoulder. “You okay? Come on, I’ll help you unpack if you wan-”

“You! You- get your hands off of Gary! Don’t touch him!” Jimmy ignored this, tuning it out in his mind, until he realized that the woman was talking about him. To him. 

Jimmy gave her a dirty look. “I keep my hands off of him more than you do,” he sneered.

Gary punched him in the stomach- hard. Jimmy winced. “Shut your fucking mouth,” Gary hissed, and Jimmy knew immediately that he deserved it.

Gary’s mom ignored his remark, screaming protests and profanities at Crabblesnitch and the prefects. While everyone else was held up, Jimmy and Gary managed to slip away.


	3. The Aftermath of Gary's Mom's Temper Tantrum

Jimmy was sick of the silence. The police came and got Gary’s mother to leave. They were away from the scene now, but things still felt unresolved. Why did Gary shove his mom into the car, and why did she not care? Did she hit him? If she did, Gary never mentioned it. Just the other thing that Jimmy didn’t like thinking about.

“Gary.” 

Gary stopped walking, turning to look at him. “What?”

“Uh, you okay?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Gary muttered. Jimmy didn’t blame him for being in a bad mood- if his mother threw a fit like that in the parking lot, he wouldn’t be very happy either.

Jimmy nodded. Neither of them were in a rush, and Jimmy was considering asking if he wanted to sneak off somewhere. He wasn’t sure that was a good idea though. As he considered what to do next, he looked Gary up and down. He didn’t gain any weight, but he did grow taller… by a lot. Jimmy groaned in frustration, knowing he would never catch up to Gary. Being short didn’t bother him too much, but… if he could change his height, he would.

“You know…” Jimmy said, eyeing Gary once again. “You won’t have to deal with them again until summer. It’s not all bad.”

Gary stopped and rolled his eyes, turning around to look at Jimmy. “I have to deal with them every Saturday. What about that, then? They want me out of Bullworth on the weekends.” 

He could vaguely remember Gary being absent on the weekends last year. “Just tell them you’re in town on Saturdays then… or something. I don’t know. Say you’re with me and my mom.”

“Jimmy, it doesn’t work that way. They’ll want a phone number, and then they’ll want to talk to her, and then they’ll want to come along. It sucks.”

Chewing the inside of his cheek, he climbed the stairs to the dorm. At least he tried, right? He tried to find a way out for Gary. “Um… well, it’s nice to see you again. I missed you.” The words felt foreign when they came out of his mouth, and even stranger when it hung in the air around them. It was true, but… 

“You missed me?” 

“Yeah. Of course I did.”

“Oh.” Gary opened the door and stepped into the entrance without another word. Jimmy cringed, remembering how he offered to help Gary unpack. He would have to live through the awkwardness until they were finished. 

All of the other boys in the dorm had finished their own unpacking, and they were lounging around the main room, watching TV and chatting happily. Gary and Jimmy slipped by without any notice.

Once they got inside his dorm, Gary spoke again. “Sorry. I was just thinking.” Gary set his bag down on the bed and opened it, pulling a few shirts out. Uniforms. He didn’t say anything else, and Jimmy wondered what he was thinking about. The fact that Jimmy missed him? 

Did Gary miss him too? 

As Gary moved away from the bag and opened his closet, Jimmy shuffled around and pulled out shampoo bottles and a pack of unopened toothbrushes. He grabbed more things and headed to the bathroom to put them away, focusing on Gary from the corner of his eye.

-

“Thanks, Jimmy,” Gary muttered as he sat down on the bed and threw his now empty bag onto the floor. Jimmy knew he didn’t mean it in a rude or sarcastic way. He knew that Gary was still upset, and needed to take it out on someone. Him.

He sat down next to Gary on his bed- not too close- and frowned. The entire dorm was eerily silent now that everyone left for dinner a few minutes ago. “Hey,” Jimmy said gently. “I hope you feel better soon. Are you hungry?” He tries to think of a way to coax Gary into eating, but nothing comes to mind.

Gary turns to look at him. “I’m not a toddler.”

“Gary, I didn’t.. I didn’t say that.”

“Just shut up.”

Even though Jimmy expected a remark like that, it still hurt. Gary was dangerously skinny, and he did need to eat. “Come on, please? Just come to dinner with me. We don’t even have to talk to each other.”

Shaking his head, Gary stands up. “It’s not a date, Jimmy!” he says through gritted teeth. “You’re not my therapist, you’re not my caretaker, you’re not...” he paused, clenching his fists tighter. “...get out.”

Jimmy stood up and stepped towards the door, knowing he can’t do anything to fix it. The longer he stays, the worse it’ll get between them. “Fine. See you tomorrow,” he mumbles, looking at Gary one last time before pulling the door shut.

He stood in the hallway, staring at the white plaster on the door in front of him. Gary would apologize to him later- or maybe not. Apologizing wasn’t a “Gary” thing, but he would start acting like they were friends again soon, like nothing happened between them. That was his version of an apology. 

Turning around, he opened the door to his own dorm and sat down on the bed. He wasn’t angry at Gary, just frustrated. Jimmy was trying to help, and if Gary wasn’t in such a shitty mood because of his stupid whore mom, everything would be going fine by now. Jimmy laid down on top of his blankets and pillows, not bothering to kick his shoes off or put pajamas on. He sunk into the bed, knowing that it wasn’t Gary’s fault, either. He didn’t control what his mom did, and he probably had a hard time controlling his emotions. Gary was mentally ill. Jimmy just had to keep reminding himself of that.

There were a million questions he could ask. Was Gary taking his pills? What happened between him and his mom to make a prefect intervene? Had Gary missed him over the summer? When did Gary’s eating problems start? 

Jimmy pushed all of them out of his mind. He didn’t want to worry about Gary any more than he had to. He just wanted to sleep.


	4. Gary Fucked Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> havent been able to write/edit for a while bc i am too stupid, probably going to go out of town tomorrow so idk when the next update will be! hang tight folks

When Gary woke up the next day, he was still coming to his senses. He knew he’d been overly emotional the night before, and angry- at Jimmy, his mother, this school… everything.

One thing that he couldn’t forget was how Jimmy said that he missed him. Of course Gary missed Jimmy too, but he would rather die than admit it. That was all he had to do over the summer- think about Jimmy. Jimmy, and when Gary would get to see him next, and what he looked like. Those freckles, his buzzed ginger hair, the facial structure that made him look kind of like a forty year old man, but attracted girls anyway… Jimmy always looked so pissed off. So angry. 

Gary shoved his face into his pillow and let out a frustrated growl. Why did he have to push Jimmy away? He wasn’t sure Jimmy hated him, but everybody reached a breaking point. It didn’t take much for Gary to hit his, but… Jimmy? He didn’t know. Gary had a feeling he would find out soon. Or maybe Jimmy left because he was tired of him, and didn’t want to deal with him anymore.

He got out of his bed and showered. Gary got dressed, and paused, looking at himself long and hard in the bathroom mirror. That was right, he remembered something. Something else.

Gary could’ve swore Jimmy was looking at him funny yesterday. While Jimmy was helping him unpack. What was that about?

Sighing, he turned off the bathroom light. Classes were the furthest thing from Gary’s mind at the moment, even though he would have to pick up his schedule soon and go to the main building. 

That’s right. Gary didn’t even fill out a schedule form. He wasn’t sure Jimmy did, either. Gary didn’t see the point in it- he wasn’t really interested in any of the “career paths” that they had. His only regret was not picking an easy elective instead of leaving it blank.

He thought about the way Jimmy looked at him again. It was almost like he was trying to be secretive while he did it. Slick. Gary shook his head and left his dorm, wishing he knew what all of it meant. He could ask Jimmy, sure, but Jimmy would lie. Or avoid the question. It was no use.

Petey and the prefects were handing out schedules at the entrance, and Gary wanted to die. He hated classes, the only good thing about being in Bullworth was… not being anywhere else. Not at home, or in Happy Volts. He also had a weird relationship with Jimmy, but Gary wasn’t sure that was such a good thing. They could flip on each other any minute now, and Gary was completely unprepared. Everyone loved Jimmy at this school and hated him. Trying to devise another plan involving the cliques wouldn’t work, unless Gary could manage to turn everyone against him. Possible, but difficult.

He walked up to one of the prefects, doing his best to avoid Petey. Jimmy wasn’t around, and Gary had a feeling he was still sleeping. Or maybe he was in the main building already. 

“Smith,” Gary mumbled when the prefect asked for his last name. He pulled out a thin piece of paper and handed it to him without giving him a second look. 

Gary left the line and stepped to the side to look down at it.

1\. Spanish I  
2\. English II  
3\. Chemistry  
4\. Gov’t & Civics  
5\. Algebra II

He shook his head. Of all the classes they could’ve put him in, they put him in fucking Spanish? Gary wasn’t sure that there was a worse class to sit through, except for maybe the child development class. Gary heard rumors that they had to watch videos of women giving birth, and that didn’t excite him in the slightest. Intro to Musical Theatre might be second worst, in Gary’s opinion. Watching people prance and skip around on a stage in ugly costumes, singing out of key… that would be a nightmare.

Gary wasn’t sure Spanish would be that bad after all.

He folded up his schedule neatly and put it in his back pocket, wanting to find Jimmy. Sure, he wasn’t sure what he would say to him, but..

You’ve got to get over it. You’re just as bad as the girls who are all over his dick.

Gary pushed open the door. He knew it was true, but Jimmy was his only friend. Even friend was a stretch. They had a falling out every two days, even before their sophomore year started. 

But he really had nobody else to fall back on.

He made his way to the main building, deciding to try and get through this first day of classes. If he saw Jimmy around in the hallways or on campus, he would try to talk to him. Gary knew that was a fat chance, though. Jimmy almost always skipped school. 

Gary hoped Jimmy would make an exception for the first day. He wasn’t sure what he would do otherwise.


	5. Jimmy Nice to Gary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whats up hoes and hoettes 
> 
> took me a while to get this one out but here you are. i dont know how consistent updates will be after today but we'll find out i guess?? not to make excuses but i had a family emergency and instead of doing schoolwork im doing this so be thankful ok bye

Gary’s first period class was beyond boring. The Spanish teacher talked about herself the whole time, showing the class pictures of her husband, the gremlins that crawled out of her vagina at some point, and her farm animals. She had a dog, too. None of these things were even remotely interesting to him. He was glad he chose the very last row to sit in, because this woman spoke like she was leading a pep rally. If anything, he felt pity for the people in the front row.

She wasn’t Mexican. At all. Her name was Ms. Conrad, and she was whiter than Gary’s ass. He wasn’t sure she could speak Spanish at all, and then he had a passing thought: was he in the right class?

If he wasn’t, it didn’t matter. To pass the time, Gary sunk back in his seat and gazed off into the distance, thinking of Jimmy. He hadn’t seen him yet, but he was determined. Gary didn’t know where he would be around this time, but maybe he could sneak out of an exit door after the bell rang and go searching for him. Chances are, he was skipping. Gary couldn’t imagine Jimmy sitting through five classes in a row.

Gary checked his schedule again when the bell rang, and decided he would stay in school. It would only be for one day, and it wasn’t like the teachers were giving him work… he just had to sit through their forty minute lecture about their family and he could leave. 

But then again, this was the first day. Gary could come up with all kinds of excuses for skipping a class.

His next period was English. Gary picked up his backpack and walked through the rows of desks, deep in thought. If he didn’t see Jimmy today in classes, he could go to the dorms and find him after school. He had to be there. What business would he have in town on his second day in Bullworth? 

Gary was the third person in the classroom, only beaten by the teacher and Beatrice Trudeau. The teacher was named Ms. Neumeister, and Gary wished that Mr. Galloway had switched to sophomore English over the summer. He was the only teacher that Gary enjoyed having, only because the man was drunk off of his ass most of the time. He didn’t pay Gary much attention, which he liked.

He sat down in a group of desks near the back, avoiding eye contact with Beatrice and the teacher. Gary had no problems with Beatrice, except for the fact that she was annoying and Gary would rather die than hold a conversation with her for longer than two minutes. The teacher was giving him a dirty look, so he gave one right back, before crossing his arms and letting his back rest against the chair.

More kids started to file into the classroom. Russell was one of them, and surprisingly, Russell sat down next to him, in the seat to his left.

The desks were arranged in groups of four. Gary turned to look at him, wondering why he would rather sit with him than someone like- he looked around- Trent. Trent was across the classroom, sitting with one other guy. That meant Trent had two empty seats in his group. Gary turned to look at him. “Hi, Russell,” he said stiffly. Gary didn’t hate Russell, not as much as everyone else, but Gary thought Russell was still mad at him for that thing he did in the basement.

He remembered how he pinned Russell against Jimmy, got them to fight…

It didn’t make sense.

Russell smiled back wordlessly. This frustrated Gary. “Why did you choose to sit next to me?” he asked further. 

He shrugged. “Jimmy nice to you. I nice to you.” Russell looked away from him, as if those two sentences settled the whole thing.

“..Oh.” That was true, Jimmy was nice to Gary, whenever Gary didn’t have his head up his ass… but he thought Russell hated him. How did Jimmy change that?

The bell rang. Gary sighed, no Jimmy. Again. He felt like a desperate schoolgirl hoping to be in a class with her crush. 

-

“Oh, Beatrice, will you please get that?” Ms. Neumeister smiled. Someone had knocked on the door, and Beatrice, being the teacher’s pet, always sat in the front row, making her the closest to the door. Gary was politely surprised to find that Ms. Neumeister didn’t talk about her stupid white husband and her millions of kids and her “furbabies.” Instead, she let everyone else talk while she did some boring shit on her computer. Probably emails. Gary wasn’t sure how people could stand emailing each other, being fake nice and saying things like, “best regards.” Gary didn’t have anyone to talk to though, except for Russell, but he wasn’t… the best for conversation. He was glad that Russell sat next to him. Otherwise his table would be completely empty, because duh, nobody wanted to sit with the school sociopath. Gary did like being alone, but sometimes having a table to yourself was kind of embarrassing. 

Then he remembered the door. His first thought was obviously Jimmy, but it couldn’t be Jimmy. He knew that. Maybe Crabblesnitch coming to talk about how “great” this school year will be, and how he’s not going to have “any fights or disturbances.” Or maybe another teacher- a freshman teacher- off on their break, coming to visit their past students. 

Beatrice hastily stood up to open the door, and Gary leaned back to see who it was. His sight was pretty much blocked by Russell’s large frame, but he didn’t need to see. 

He could hear Jimmy’s voice.

Gary sat up straighter in his chair, straining to listen. Was it really Jimmy’s voice, or was he just… hallucinating? 

“I have a note.”

Ms. Neumeister crossed her arms and tilted her head. “Yes, of course you have a note. Why do you have a note?”

Everyone was watching Jimmy. The room was completely silent. “...Because I got held back by my first period teacher? Why else would I have a note?” To Gary, it sounded like a lie. Maybe he had something else to hide.

“Really?” she muttered, yanking the note from his hands. Neumeister read it and crumpled it up in her hand, throwing it in the trash. “Your name is James? Hopkins?”

“You can’t read?”

A few kids snickered, including Trent. Beatrice shook her head and put her head in her hands. “Jimmy, you really should stop…”

Ms. Neumeister looked at Beatrice, and then at Jimmy. “So you go by Jimmy?”

“You’re a smart one, huh? Glad they hired you!” Jimmy said enthusiastically, as he turned and made his way across the classroom. Jimmy sat down in the desk diagonal from Gary. Gary watched him in anticipation. Jimmy hadn’t even looked at him. It was possible that he spotted Russell and hadn’t even seen him yet, because Russell was fucking huge. Gary kept staring at him as Jimmy set his backpack on the ground.

“Young man, get back up here. Right now.”

Jimmy groaned, not quite standing up when he made eye contact with Gary. There was a moment of recognition, and then Jimmy smiled. “Oh, hey. I tried to talk to you this morning, b-”

“No dillydallying!” The entire class was watching Jimmy and Gary, and Gary was surprised that Jimmy was talking to him so openly. Didn’t he care about what everyone else thought? 

Also, Gary hated the word “dillydallying.” It was stupid and corny.

He walked to the front of the room again, his backpack left on the floor near Gary’s table. “Yes, ma’am?” It was clear that he was agitated with Neumeister’s constant harassment, but at least Jimmy could make a show out of it.

“I don’t tolerate troublemakers like you in this class. Backtalking, disrespect, flirting with other students- I won’t have it.” She shook her head, her golden hoop earrings shaking with the movement of her head.

“Flirting? When the hell did I do that? If you think I’m flirting with you, miss-”

“We don’t use that language in here, young man! I said flirting with other students. Student-teacher relations are not only inappropriate, but illegal. You will sign the late sheet and we will have a talk after class.”

To aggravate her even further, Jimmy turned around to face the rest of the class, grinning ear to ear. “You hear that, guys? I’m getting a talk after class!” he exclaimed, waggling his eyebrows. Half of the class broke into laughter, and one guy whistled from Gary’s side of the room. Even Gary couldn’t resist laughing, but he tried to stay quiet. He didn’t want to boost Jimmy’s ego.

Beatrice shook her head, though. Some people, like her, were visibly annoyed by Jimmy. Yet nobody told him to stop.

Ms. Neumeister shook her head again, more rapidly this time. “OUT of my classroom, sir! I said out! Get your things and leave!” Jimmy only smiled, walking back to the group of tables to get his backpack from the floor. She pointed wildly at Russell and Gary, too. “I expect you two to leave for encouraging this sort of behavior. Nothing like this will ever happen in my classroom again, you hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Jimmy exclaimed, grinning. Gary knew that he was either faking it, or he was truly that happy to get out of class. He also found it odd that Ms. Neumeister was kicking him and Russell out, too. It was likely that she felt anyone Jimmy Hopkins would choose to sit with would be unworthy of being in her classroom, but Gary gathered his things anyway. Russell looked confused, so he copied what Gary and Jimmy did, standing up and picking his things off of the ground.

“Russell bad?” he asked, once the three of them were in the hallway.

“No, no. You didn’t do anything bad, Russell.” Jimmy kicked a crumpled piece of paper down the hallway. “It was me.”

Russell nodded, almost knowingly. “Russell not bad.” He turned to Jimmy, smiling. “Jimmy bad.”

“Yep,” Jimmy smiled. “Jimmy bad. Hey, Gary- what’s your schedule?”

Gary had been dead silent up until this point. Not that he was waiting for Jimmy to talk to him first, but he… kind of was. He didn’t know what to say. Pulling the folded paper out of his back pocket, he handed it to Jimmy and locked eyes with him. “I’m sorry for what I said,” Gary mumbled, caught between staring at the ground and Jimmy’s face. Making eye contact was unbelievably hard, and the whole situation made Gary feel stupid and small.

Russell observed them quietly, and Gary had a feeling that Russell knew something that he didn’t. Or maybe not. Maybe it was just one of those “Russell looks.” 

Jimmy nodded dismissively, looking down and unfolding Gary’s schedule. “Don’t worry, Gary. You don’t need to apologize.” He paused, mouthing Gary’s classes as he read them. Gary was immediately interested. He didn’t know that Jimmy mouthed his words when he read, and it seemed like an odd thing to do, but it… was fitting.

“Okay.” He folded the paper back up and held it out to Gary. “We have second and fourth period together. Um… social studies or whatever.”

“Russell’s schedule?” Russell asked, reaching for his bag and starting to unzip it.

Jimmy shook his head. “We already looked at yours, remember? Next period, you go to welding.”

“Oh.” Russell stopped digging in his bag and smiled contentedly. 

Gary narrowed his eyes at Jimmy, finding it odd that Jimmy wasn’t upset with him for yelling last night. If it was the other way around, Gary would be pissed. Why was Jimmy having such an easy time forgiving him? He just brushed it off as if it were no big deal. Maybe Jimmy just didn’t hold grudges like that.

He gave Gary space when he needed it, too.

“I am really sorry. And thank you. For leaving. Instead of yelling back.” Gary’s voice sounded almost robotic. Monotone. He was pretty much forcing the words out of his mouth.

Once again, Russell started to stare at him. It wasn’t creepy, but it was… weird. It was like Russell had a thinking face or something. “Gary,” Jimmy said, raising his eyebrows. “It’s fine, man. I promise you.”

Gary swallowed his spit. Something had changed in Jimmy over the summer. Or… was it even over the summer? Was it sometime last year, before their freshman year ended? Jimmy was still a troublemaker, that was obvious from the scene he just caused to get them thrown out, but Jimmy wasn’t calling him delusional anymore. He wasn’t telling him that he needed to get a grip, or to calm down, or…

He realized that both Jimmy and Russell were staring at him. Gary had been chewing the dead skin on his lip, staring at Jimmy while he got lost in his thoughts. He decided to accept things as they were for now. Gary had time to worry about Jimmy’s personality shift… later. Probably when he couldn’t fall asleep later that night.

“Um. What are we going to do?” Gary asked stupidly. 

Jimmy shrugged. “We can just walk around if you guys want to.” He checked his phone for the time. Gary remembered how he had his phone confiscated in Happy Volts, and never got it back. He never asked his parents for a new one, even though they would get one for him if he asked. Maybe he should ask.

“We have twenty minutes.” They were both staring at him again. 

“Okay? Let’s go,” Gary said, pushing past them and walking down the hallway. Both of them followed.

The silence was awkward, but thankfully Jimmy spoke up. “What elective do you have again? They put me in Home Ec, cooking and stuff. It’s gonna suck. Mrs. Peabody is a stuck up old hag.”

Gary smiled at the thought of Mrs. Peabody yelling at Jimmy for not putting enough butter in a pan, or some bullshit like that. “I have, uh. Spanish. And then Welding, for the second semester.”

“What?” Jimmy muttered angrily. “You got welding? Why do I get all of the stupid stuff? They put me in Child Development for the second semester.”

Another image flashed into Gary’s mind. Jimmy sitting at a desk, watching the videos of women giving birth on the projector in the front of the room. Disgusting. He grinned. “You should ask to change them,” he suggested, giving Jimmy good advice for once. If he could have Jimmy in his Spanish class, time would go by a lot faster in there. Maybe Gary would be excited to show up sometimes.

“Yeah. I think I will. What, do these people think I’m going to raise children or something?”

Gary looked him up and down. “You might, it only takes Zoe and Lola one day to miss a pill.”

Jimmy elbowed Gary in the side, yet he was smiling. “Shut up. I don’t even talk to Lola anymore.” He looked up at Gary. “You heard of the Plan B pill?”

He smiled. “Yeah. Doesn’t mean it’ll always work.”

Russell trudged behind them, watching them go back and forth. Even though he felt left out and completely out of the loop, he smiled. They were getting along, and that was good enough for him. 

Jimmy nice to Gary.


	6. Oh No

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> going home tomorrow (this?) morning so my updates might get more on track. i also have another fanfiction running so idk if that'll actually happen but i hope so. anyway get ready for another long one bois. this chapter might be a little bad but its okay

Even on their first day of school, there were already tons of rumors. One of those rumors included Mandy; people were saying her and Ted broke up, because Ted had been caught cheating. It sounded true enough, but Jimmy hadn’t checked up on Mandy recently, so he couldn’t be sure. Was that a Ted-like thing, or did Mandy fabricate the story somehow?

Another rumor was that Edna got fired from her position as cafeteria staff. Jimmy hoped to God that was true, because if it was, he would be able to eat school food without intense stomach problems and a heightened awareness of the weird texture on his tongue. But, some things just sounded too good to be true.

The last one, or the last one Jimmy knew about, was that him and Gary were friends again. Jimmy wasn’t sure if they were friends, but it wasn’t a secret that they got along now. There was a picture spread around of the two of them cuddling together last year, for God’s sake. Why were people shocked that Jimmy was talking to him? Why were people shocked that he sat next to Gary and Russell in English? Why were people shocked to find them at lunch together?

Jimmy was relieved to hear the bell ring during third period Geometry. Math sucked, and he didn’t have any close friends in that class. Sure, he could make some- but why would he? He preferred to sit in his desk with his legs slung over the table, his arms crossed over his chest, Mr. White’s words going in one ear and out the other. 

His next class, Government and Civics, was shared with Gary. Jimmy was oblivious to why he was so excited to see Gary, but it didn’t matter. Being around him, being watched by him… just gave him an adrenaline thrill. Like when he was in English class, rousing the teacher up- the fact that Gary was watching him made it feel so much better. 

Jimmy pushed past people in the hallway, knowing that the word he was looking for was “impress.” He was trying to “impress” Gary. But he really wasn’t. Jimmy would’ve done all of those things anyway, if Gary was in the classroom or not. Suddenly, the word “impress” didn’t fit anymore.

Jimmy just… cared about what Gary thought of him. That made more sense. He wasn’t trying to impress anyone, certainly not Gary. Maybe some of his girlfriends, but they usually weren’t around to see him smarting off to the teachers, so it didn’t matter.

Gary was already in the classroom, and Jimmy was surprised to find that most everyone else was, too. Had he really taken that long? Mr. White’s classroom wasn’t even that far away… he was just distracted. How thinking about Gary managed to distract him, he wasn’t sure.

He sat down in the desk left of Gary, letting his backpack drop to the ground. He didn’t use that thing anyway. “Hey,” Jimmy smiled, once again trying to subtly look Gary up and down. It didn’t work- Gary narrowed his eyes, as if he were catching on to what Jimmy was doing.

“What’s that for?”

Jimmy paused. “Uh, you look nice today,” he mumbled. Heat rose to Jimmy’s cheeks, but luckily, someone sat down in front of Jimmy at their table. He was saved, at least temporarily.

It was Mandy. She folded her hands out in front of her, and started to smile. “Hi, Jimmy.” She looked how she normally did- her hair up in a ponytail, her navy blue bow poking out from behind her head. Jimmy wondered why she always wore her cheerleading outfit to class, but he couldn’t see her wearing a uniform. 

The redness on his cheeks started to fade. Of course, he could just pass it off as being ginger and his face always heating up, but that just wasn’t true. “Hey Mandy. You ok? I heard about the thing with Ted.”

“...Yeah. That.” Disgust flashed onto her face for a brief moment. “Yeah, he’s a cheating manwhore. I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” She flashed another grin, and turned to face Gary. “Jimmy, why are you sitting with… him?” Mandy asked.

Jimmy turned to look at Gary, and he wasn’t surprised that Gary was giving her a dirty look. “What’s wrong with him, Mandy?” Jimmy asked innocently. He turned back to look at her. The fact that Mandy would talk about Gary like that surprisingly angered him, but he wasn’t going to let it show. It happened all the time, and Gary wasn’t very likable. He still didn’t deserve to be talked about like that, though.

“Oh, nothing. You know, he’s just a sociopath, who tried to kill you. This isn’t going to become a thing, is it? You two hanging out?” Mandy asked, locking eyes with Jimmy. 

Rolling his eyes, he leaned forward over his desk. “I think you should stop talking about him like that,” Jimmy said in a low voice. “Worse things could be said about both of us, don’t you think? I’ll hang out with whoever I want, so don’t act all self-important.”

She huffed and looked away from Jimmy, readjusting her elastic bow on her hair. “I was just asking.”

“Really? That’s funny. It didn’t sound like that,” Jimmy said calmly, not bothering to lower his voice this time. It only occurred to him now that he was being- really- defensive of Gary. Gary could do it himself, if Jimmy only let him. It wouldn’t have been that effective in the end. Even if people were weirded out by Gary, it didn’t mean he was intimidating. “I think he deserves an apology, actually,” he goes on, seeing how far Mandy will go to stay on his good side. Jimmy wasn’t sure what Mandy wanted from him in the first place. Likely a favor- revenge on Ted would be his first guess.

She huffed and stared at Jimmy. “He needs an apology? I don’t think he does.”

Gary was staring at Jimmy now, waiting to see what he would do next. Jimmy crossed his arms and sat back in his chair. “‘Kay, Mandy. Suit yourself.” It didn’t even occur to him that the teacher had been talking the entire time, but he didn’t seem concerned with the fact that people were talking over him. Maybe Jimmy would end up liking this teacher.

He was going on about grading structures or something like that. “Fine! Fine, Jimmy, God. I’ll fucking apologize.” Jimmy raised his eyebrows, waiting for the apology. Mandy turned to face Gary again. “Gary, I am really sorry for what I said. About you.”

“That’s it?” Jimmy piped up. He was probably exercising his power a little too much, but.. if Mandy would do it… 

“I’m sorry for calling you a sociopath. You are totally not a sociopath.” She looked at Jimmy. “Is that good enough?”

Jimmy grinned, looking at Gary. He didn’t look so angry anymore, it was replaced with… something else. “Be a little less sarcastic next time.”

“Okay. Gary, I really am sorry. I didn’t mean to call you a sociopath.” 

He nodded. “That’s good enough for me.” Jimmy looked up at Gary again, wondering what he was thinking. He couldn’t imagine being in Gary’s mind. What was it like? Hell? A maze? An endless labyrinth? Or did he just block out everything? Jimmy wasn’t even sure if Gary was on his meds. He hoped he was. Jimmy wanted him to be okay.

Gary had been eerily silent ever since he asked what Jimmy was doing- why he was looking at him that way. Jimmy did it all the time… had Gary never noticed before? 

“Hey Gary? You okay? You’re being really quiet.”

Jimmy felt Gary’s gaze on him. “I’m fine. Distracted. Don’t worry,” Gary spoke, not doing a very good job of reassuring Jimmy of anything.

He couldn’t blame Gary, he probably did have a lot to think about. 

“Um. Jimmy.” It was Mandy again, trying to get his attention. He was so caught up in Gary that he didn’t even notice her.

“What?” he asked. Mandy leaned across the desks and motioned that she needed to whisper something. Jimmy turned his head to the side and felt her soft hand as it cupped around his ear.

“We need to date. Like, now. I need to make Ted jealous. I don’t want to get back with him, but I want to make him jealous.”

Jimmy stared at her as she sat back down in her seat, smoothing out her skirt as she looked around, mostly at Gary.

So that’s what it was this whole time? Fake-dating Mandy, well, he could do that. Easy peasy.


	7. I Don't Know What To Name This Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow garys pov
> 
> im here

“Hey Gary? You okay? You’re being really quiet.”

He stared down at Jimmy, caught off guard. “I’m fine. Distracted. Don’t worry,” Gary said solemnly, but it was the truth. Jimmy was acting so unusual lately, and he couldn’t make sense of it. 

You look nice today. 

That’s what Jimmy had said to him when he sat down at his table. He couldn’t figure out for the life of him why Jimmy said it. Gary wasn’t one of his girls, he didn’t need to compliment him, and he didn’t really look nice at all. He wore what he always wore, what everyone else wore. The uniform. He styled his hair the exact same way. Gary never made any special effort to get anyone’s- or Jimmy’s- attention when he got dressed this morning. Did Jimmy just say that to… distract him from something else? Move the conversation in a different direction?

And why did he make Mandy keep apologizing to him? It surprised Gary that Jimmy would just stand up for him like that, but… he could’ve been doing it to prove a point to her. To make her feel stupid.

Why would he want to do that?

Gary sighed in frustration, feeling totally lost. Was that how he got girls? Making them feel incompetent and stupid? And what was with the… the weird looks Jimmy was giving him? Something was going on, and Gary could only hope that Jimmy wasn’t going to turn on him. Although maybe he was, and it wasn’t like Gary could blame him. He was a handful. He really was.

But he didn’t want Jimmy to leave him. He was his only friend. 

The back of his throat burned, and suddenly he felt like crying.

He looked at Jimmy again. Jimmy had been staring at him, yet Mandy took the attention away from him once again. “Um, Jimmy,” she spoke.

Gary wasn’t fond of any of Jimmy’s recurring girlfriends, although if he had to pick one it would be Zoe. He never saw her too often, which made her the least annoying. Beatrice and Mandy were suck-ups, Pinky was an inbred, and Lola couldn’t stick with a guy if she tried. Sometimes Gary even felt remorse for Johnny. Who could like a girl like… that?

“What?” Jimmy asked, sounding… irritated?

Mandy leaned across the desk and whispered something to Jimmy, her hand cupping around his ear. Gary scooted away from Jimmy. He didn’t care about what she was saying, it was either something about Gary or her ex boyfriend. His eyes darted around the classroom, landing on the teacher in the front of the room. His name was Mr. Mette, and he looked pretty young. Nice, too. Maybe he would let Gary cry in the bathroom, if he could muster up the courage to ask without breaking out into sobs.

Gary’s attention was pulled back to Jimmy and Mandy. Turns out, Gary was wrong. “Sure, Mandy. We can talk later.” So it was a favor. Gary rolled his eyes, Jimmy had to be the Bullworth favor boy, didn’t he? In the beginning, Jimmy was his favor boy. His grunt worker. Everyone must have picked up on that at some point.

Gary would never use Jimmy again, though. Not because Jimmy was too smart, but because… well, Gary didn’t need any favors. He didn’t have some big overarching plan to take over Bullworth. Bullworth belonged to Jimmy, and now that they got along, he didn’t need to worry about him. He only had to worry about the other students.

But then again, Jimmy might be making plans to slowly detach himself from Gary. 

He stared down at his empty desk, upset and on the verge of tears. If Jimmy (or anyone) spoke to him, Gary knew he would break down. So he kept quiet and avoided eye contact, planning to bring a book to read or a notebook to draw in tomorrow. It would be a good way to pass the time and distract himself while Mandy flirted the whole period.


	8. Jimmy Gets An Idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jimmy gets an idea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my writing style in this bitch is kind of wack and this is really short but dont worry :) things are only going to go downhill from now and on
> 
> sorry updates are gonna be hella sporadic now

“Hey, Gary.”

Gary gave him a funny look. “Jimmy boy.” He walked past Jimmy, and Jimmy turned to catch up with him. “How was… uh..”

“Home ec,” he said, looking up at Gary. “It sucked.” Jimmy knew Gary was already suspicious of him, but that wasn’t exactly bad news. They had been spending more time around each other since school started, and Jimmy still wanted to get closer to Gary.

“Oh,” Gary said blandly. “Okay. How did you know I was in a math class?” He narrowed his eyes and looked down at Jimmy accusingly.

He gripped the strap on his backpack and looked away. “I.. saw your schedule? I don’t-” 

“Jimmy, I was looking for you.”

Jimmy whipped around to see Mandy. “Oh. Hey.” Mandy didn’t look very happy. Last period they had talked about the details, and Jimmy agreed to date her. To make Ted jealous, like she said.

“You just left me there. In the home ec room. What kind of boyfriend are you?” she asked teasingly, walking up to his side. Mandy pulled Jimmy’s arm around her, and he could feel himself tensing up at her touch. They were only fake dating, and Ted wasn’t even around… she didn’t have to be so touchy, he thought to himself. Normally he liked the attention. 

“When did you two get together?” Gary asked. Jimmy watched him, and saw that the expression on Gary’s face was completely indifferent. Gary didn’t care that he had a girlfriend? At all?

Mandy rolled her eyes. “You’re nosy, huh? Last period.”

Gary looked away, uninterested. Jimmy felt a twinge of pain in his chest. Gary didn’t care that he had a girlfriend, at all. 

Then he had a thought. He wanted Gary to like him, and he was fake dating Mandy anyway, so he could use this to make Gary jealous. Jimmy would have to give her more attention and spend more time with her, as horrible as spending time alone with Mandy sounded. Last year it was fine, but after their falling out, Jimmy realized how stuck-up and materialistic she was. That was alright, though. 

You can’t lead her on. You need to break up with her.

Jimmy shook his head to himself, receiving a weird look from Mandy, but he paid her no attention. They were using each other. That’s how things worked. Mandy got something out of this- making Ted jealous- so why shouldn’t he get something out of it too?

Gary’s attention. That’s what he wanted.

He looked back up at him, once again. Gary was staring at the ground, chewing the inside of his cheek as he walked. This was it. This was Jimmy’s plan, and he wanted Gary, bad. If fake dating Mandy didn’t work, he would try something else after that. Jimmy only hoped it wouldn’t take long.


	9. Gary Pukes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys. got a rush of serotonin today after cutting my hair and working out and doing chores. also its been raining which is cool. this month fucking sucked but today was sexy and good so heres a chapter, yall gone hate me for doing gary like this but its ok
> 
> trigger warning: sex but theres not much description. and also vomiting (read the title bitches)
> 
> ignore the weird spacing :) had to use rich text today folks

When Gary heard the footsteps, he wasn’t asleep. He was somewhere in between consciousness and unconsciousness, and if it wasn’t for those footsteps, he would be asleep by now. He was off of his pills. The pills were both a blessing and a curse, really- they put him to sleep, alright, but they made him feel like shit after waking up. 

But Gary couldn’t have anything in this world. The moment he thought he might get some sleep, some boys had to go running around in the hallway.

Or maybe it was Jimmy?

He sat up and pulled his blanket back, sitting with his legs over the edge of his bed. Jimmy. Two weeks had passed since their first day of classes, and those two weeks felt like forever. He’d seen less and less of him as the days passed, and the only times they spoke to each other was second period English. After getting sick of Mandy and her stupid giggling and flirting, he decided it was time to move tables. 

Gary spent his lunch period reading books outside. Jimmy’s days after school were spent either escorting Mandy to cheerleading practice or whatever shitty restaurant they decided to have a date in, or spending detention with his home ec teacher. Gary was becoming increasingly frustrated, knowing he was now Jimmy’s second choice. Ever since Mandy and Ted broke up, it was becoming increasingly obvious that Jimmy didn’t care about him anymore. He was never in the dorms; he was always out in town, with her. Gary didn’t like to admit it, but his feelings were severely hurt. How could Jimmy go from caring about how often he ate and memorizing his fucking  _ schedule  _ to never giving him a passing look? 

Clenching his fists, he stood up. He was going to talk to Jimmy, now that he was finally back in his room. Gary was pissed, and he was going to make that clear.

Even if Jimmy wasn’t in his room, he could check. He needed to get this anger out of his system. If Gary didn’t take his feelings out on someone soon, he knew he was going to blow up. 

Did he really want to make it clear, though? Jimmy had become exclusive with Mandy, and that was fine. He didn’t care about their relationship, he just wanted to be closer to Jimmy again. Like they were on the first two days of school, and the last semester, after he got out of Happy Volts. Gary pushed open his door and crept into the hallway. Someone was in the common room; the glare from the TV illuminated the couch in the center. Gary ignored this and took a step closer to Jimmy’s door.

He gently twisted the knob and cracked the door open, looking inside. If Jimmy was actually inside, sleeping, he wasn’t sure he wanted to wake him up. He couldn’t be sure that it was Jimmy running around in the hallway, and there was a chance he’d been sleeping the whole time.

The lamp on Jimmy’s desk was on, and they were both on the bed. Him and Mandy. Kissing. Gary wanted to go back to his room and fall back asleep, but something kept him in place.

Jimmy was facing him, but he had his eyes closed. If he opened them and looked up, he would be able to see Gary. Gary took a careful step back and pulled the doorknob closer to himself, not entirely shutting the door. He hoped Jimmy wouldn’t notice the crack and get up to shut it.

_ You don’t have a pussy, he doesn’t care about you. Go back to bed.  _

_ Why do you need to watch them anyway? _

He stayed where he was, watching as Jimmy slid his hands underneath Mandy’s shirt. She broke away from the kiss, giving Jimmy a faint smile. Gary wanted to bust into the room and beat the shit out of her.

“People are going to hear us. I think we should go somewhere else,” she whispered, and she was right. Gary was suddenly aware that anyone could walk through the hallway and ask what he was doing- why he was spying on Jimmy. He wouldn’t have an answer. Gary was frozen in place, out of disgusting curiosity. If someone saw him, he would be fucked, and Jimmy and Mandy would hear him. But…

He looked down the hallway. Gary could see that Cornelius was the one on the couch, but he was asleep, not watching TV. He looked the other way, a dead end. Nobody would wake up. He hoped.

Jimmy shushed her. “Just be quiet. It’ll be fine. Bite my arm or something.” He broke away from her and started to pull her shorts down. Gary’s grip on the doorknob loosened, he felt like he could topple over at any moment. Why was he just standing here, watching? He- again- thought about what would happen if he got caught. Someone would ask him what he was doing, and Jimmy and Mandy would get up to see him, and everyone would think he was a creep. Or gay. Or jealous of Jimmy for being with Mandy. Not that he cared about his reputation, but he wanted Jimmy to like him, for god’s sake. This was not helping. So much could go wrong in such a short amount of time. Why was he still here?

Mandy was now half-naked, and Jimmy began fumbling with his zipper. Gary glanced back at his bedroom door, still halfway open. Then he checked both ends of the hallway again., He needed to leave while he still could; he didn’t want to see this. He didn’t want to watch any of it happen. Gary came here to talk to Jimmy, and he didn’t want to do it while he was inside his stupid girlfriend. He took a step back, letting go of the knob.

“What was that?” Mandy breathed, and Gary knew then and there that he was fucking busted. Jimmy was going to get up to investigate, and everything was going to go horribly wrong after that.

Jimmy was saying something, but he couldn’t make out the words. He was being too quiet. But he heard Mandy’s “If you’re sure,” and he knew he was off the hook. Jimmy had dismissed it as just a Noise In The Night, and that she shouldn’t be worried about it.

“Okay. I’m ready.” The back of Gary’s throat burned, knowing what was coming next. He turned and opened his door, straining to listen to his own footsteps. He didn’t want to be too loud and get caught while he was so close to being off the hook. Once he was inside of his room, he darted to the bathroom and leaned over the toilet, letting everything out at once. First it came out clear, but as Gary continued to gag, the colors came.

Once he was sure he was finished puking, he spat into the toilet and stood up, wiping his mouth with a washrag. 

Gary brushed his teeth hard until his gums bled. When he was finished brushing, he took a long shower. No matter what he did, he couldn’t get rid of the feeling. The feeling of filth coating his entire body.

He wasn’t so sure he wanted to talk to Jimmy anymore. After Mandy, he pretty much proved himself. Jimmy was exactly the same as everyone else, and even if Gary felt like he had someone to rely on at one point, he knew now that it wasn’t true. 

Jimmy was a fake.


	10. Jimmy Desperately Tries To Fix His Oopsie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> instead of masturbating im updating this. be proud

Jimmy was learning the hard way that playing hard to get wouldn’t work on Gary.

Making out with Mandy in the hallways, holding hands as they walked around campus, doing stupid couple things like making each other playlists and playing footsie underneath the desks in social studies- none of it was getting to him. Jimmy’s last and final attempt was fucking Mandy in the dorm room, and even that didn’t go well. The issue wasn’t getting him to watch, it was finding out how he felt about it. Jimmy had made a special effort to stomp a little harder in front of Gary’s doorway to get him to come out, but once he cracked open Jimmy’s bedroom door and started to watch, Jimmy was disappointed to find that Gary wasn’t reacting. He left halfway through, and didn’t say anything about it the next day. Obviously Gary wasn’t supposed to know that Jimmy knew. Part of this plan wasn’t just taking risks, it was acting, too. Acting like he loved Mandy.

He wasn’t sure what was and wasn’t acting on Mandy’s part. Whatever it was, she was doing a pretty good job. Mandy would be back with Ted in no time. But Jimmy’s concern was elsewhere. Gary might not be gay at all, and he could turn out like one of those crazy people that end up marrying and making love to a rollercoaster because he felt so “spiritually connected” to it. Or Gary might end up alone. He didn’t want either of those things for Gary, which was why Jimmy decided to take a more direct approach. He would have to break up with Mandy and start subtly flirting with Gary, the latter being more difficult, because flirting subtly with someone who claimed to be super observant but had trouble picking up on the most basic of social cues wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. But Jimmy was going to try. Before he did any of that, he had to fix his broken friendship with Gary. His mind was probably in shambles right now, missing and hating Jimmy at the same time. Jimmy hated himself for not seeing the consequences of ignoring Gary right away, but he decided to try to talk to him sooner than later. Maybe there was still time.

But first, Mandy.

After a long, monotonous Tuesday, Jimmy cornered Mandy after their home ec class. He continued to have Thursday and Friday detentions with Peabody, so it was a relief he was free that afternoon.

“Hey, Mandy, I’m sorry. I think we need to break it off.” Maybe too direct. Maybe he should’ve let her off easier. It was too late for any of that now.

She looked at him as if he’d brandished a knife. “What? You don’t like me anymore?” 

“No, I just think… well, if Ted isn’t jealous by now, I don’t think he’ll ever be.” That was part of the truth.

Mandy crossed her arms and leaned against the brick wall behind her. “Jimmy, I think you misunderstood. I didn’t want to get back with him, I just wanted to make him angry. I would never forgive someone who cheated on me,” she said through gritted teeth. Her voice went back to normal. “But you still love me, right? We can still date. I don’t love Ted. I love you.” That was ironic, considering Jimmy had “cheated” on her a number of times, but he wasn’t going to point that out now. Not unless he thought it could help the situation.

Jimmy chewed the inside of his cheek. No, he didn’t love Mandy, and he thought the whole point of their relationship was to get Ted to love her again?

If she liked Ted this whole time, why would she have sex with you? You knew she thought it was a real relationship. And you used her.

Lying would only make things worse. “I’m-... no. I’m really sorry, okay? I don’t love you.” It was painful to say. He didn’t want to upset Mandy, he knew she already had it bad with her last ex-boyfriend, but Jimmy didn’t want to lie to her like Ted did.

Even if he technically had been lying throughout the whole relationship. But he thought they were fake dating, so it wasn’t his fault, right?

Mandy shook her head. “You really don’t love me? Fine. Why not?” 

“Uh… I like someone else.” He was relieved that Mandy was angry rather than upset. The last thing he wanted was to break her heart. He could deal with pissing her off instead.

“Mhm. And who would that be? I promise you, Jimmy, I’m the best looking girl here.” She looks around, and once she’s sure nobody else is listening, she starts again. “Is it that tramp, Lola? You won’t get very far. She’s always up on Johnny’s dick-”

Jimmy shakes his head. “Not Lola. You don’t need to worry about who it is. I don’t think they like me back.” That part was true- if Gary liked him, he wasn’t showing any signs. But giving up was not an option.

“You don’t think they like you back?” Mandy asks, tilting her head unconsciously. “I can help you, then. Who- it’s Zoe, right? The one from town?”

“No. Not Zoe, either,” Jimmy says, starting to walk away. “Don’t worry about it, I told you.”

Mandy ran to catch up with him. “They go to this school?” she says quickly, as if she’s scared Jimmy might shut her down if she doesn’t get her sentence out soon enough.

“They go to this school. But I’m not telling you who it is, so don’t even bother.” Jimmy looks up at her, wondering if she didn’t love him, either. She clearly wasn’t upset from their breakup. If anything, she sounded more annoyed. 

“What clique? I bet it’s one of those non-clique skanks. Seriously, Jimmy. You are making a huge mistake by breaking up with me,” Mandy warns. 

“Mandy, stop. I really don’t care. You can tell everyone that you broke up with me because I have a tiny dick or something, okay?” Jimmy quickened his pace, wanting to get back to the boys’ dorm to talk to Gary. 

She was incapable of taking a hint. “Just give me a name! It’s not that hard, is it? I just want to help.”

Jimmy stopped walking. “Just leave it alone!” A few people had stopped to watch them, and Jimmy could see that Gary happened to be there too. Jimmy froze in his tracks, staring at him. He needed to get Gary alone somewhere to apologize and try to fix things, with Mandy around, Jimmy knew it would be difficult. This girl was determined.

“What are you people fucking looking at? Leave! This has nothing to do with you!” she snapped, balling her fists at them.

He shook his head. “Mandy, you need to go.”

Mandy gave him a dirty look. “No, I don’t. We’re having a conversation.”

“This is hilarious,” Gary butts in, and Jimmy was glad that he stepped in, even if he was putting them down. “Go on,” he said with an amused smile.

“There’s nothing to go on about. She won’t leave me alone.” Jimmy doesn’t take his eyes off of Gary. “But I’m sorry for ignoring you.” Might as well get Gary’s brain churning. Jimmy wished he knew how long it would take Gary to forgive him.

More people started surrounding them, coming out of the main building from their last class of the day. Gary didn’t say anything back to Jimmy, which left Mandy room to speak. “So it’s Gary? You’re more sorry to him than you are to me. That’s what I’m getting from this.”

Jimmy could feel his anger bottling up inside, and he knew he would need to get away from her soon. “I apologized to you! If thinking it’s Gary makes you… feel better, then go ahead. I won’t stop you. Just get off my ass,” he hissed, turning away and storming off. He didn’t want to talk to Gary in front of all of those people, so he hoped Gary would follow him and Mandy would take a hint and leave him alone. 

“I’m… uh, what?” Jimmy could hear Gary call out. He heard footsteps from behind him, and unfortunately it was both Mandy and Gary that decided to follow.

“Jimmy likes you,” she said smugly, walking beside Jimmy.

Gary rolled his eyes. “No, he doesn’t,” he scoffed.

Jimmy looked up at him and smiled, trying to think of something smart to say, but nothing came to mind. Jimmy wasn’t sure where he was walking anymore, but the boys’ dorm still seemed fine. Mandy wasn’t allowed in there, even if he had snuck her in a few times.

“So you’re flirting with boys now? What the fuck, Jimmy?” Mandy snapped, grabbing him by the arm. 

“What? I thought you said I liked him.” He yanked his arm away and headed up the stairs without another word. 

Jimmy was relieved once he got inside the entrance, with Gary behind him. He now had an opportunity to apologize to Gary, and he wouldn’t have to hear another word from Mandy for a while.

Not until tomorrow in social studies, anyway.


	11. Jimmy Desperately Tries To Fix His Oopsie (Part 2)

“I can explain, okay? I- Gary! Come on, I just want to talk!”

Jimmy stood in the doorway, blocking Gary from entering his room. Gary shoved him backwards and slammed the door shut, turning to look at Jimmy now that they were both inside.

“I’m really sorry, okay? Can’t you just listen to me for a second?” Jimmy pleaded, watching Gary with fading hope. He fucked up- not only with Gary, but with Mandy- and he wasn’t sure either of them would forgive him.

Gary crossed his arms. “I’m fucking listening.”

Silence settled between them. Jimmy scoured his mind for something- anything- to explain why he ignored Gary. Anything but the truth. Nothing came to mind.

“Well, I- uh…”

“See? Fucking nothing. You thought I was annoying and bad for your reputation or whatever and you would rather hang out with your stupid girlfriend so you abandoned me, and then as soon as you two broke up you come back to me,” Gary huffs. “You can talk to anyone in this school, Jimmy. Anyone. So why do you terrorize me? Why?”

The way Gary was looking at him made unease stir in his gut. Was there any chance for redemption? “You’re not annoying, Gary. I’m sorry, okay? I understand if you hate me. It’s fine. But I miss talking to you.” Jimmy swallowed his spit and started coughing. Gary watched him, his facial expression unchanging.

Once Jimmy was through with his coughing fit, he looked back up at Gary. “Sorry. Please, can we just be friends again? I’ll owe you one, or I’ll do whatever you want. I won’t date, uh, any girls again, or-”

“You owe me one? Okay. Get out of my fucking room.”

“No, Gary.” Jimmy stood still, mimicking Gary’s body language and crossing his arms. He could’ve swore he saw something flicker in Gary’s eyes, but it was gone before he could put a finger on it.

Gary hesitated before he spoke again. “I’m serious,” he says quietly, yet steadily. “I’m sick of it, Jimmy. I thought we were friends.”

“Yeah. And we can be friends again. I won’t do anything like that again. Swear.” Jimmy thought about bringing up the time when Gary turned on him and did something exactly like this, but he wasn’t sure if it would help his case. If anything, it could make the situation worse. 

“Fuck you,” Gary muttered, his voice starting to waver. “Fuck you. Just get out of m-y room.”

Jimmy took a step towards the door, watching Gary closely. “What if I let you get me back somehow?” He knew Gary would be in tears sooner than later, and he wanted to be there for him while he cried. 

“Stop. You can’t fix this. Just go f-” Gary pauses to wipe tears from his eyes. “Find another f-fucking girlfriend to distract yourself with. God.” 

He wanted to reach out and hug Gary, but decided against it. “I don’t care about girls anymore,” Jimmy said gently, deciding to move closer and put a hand on his shoulder to test his limits. “I just don’t want you to hate me. And I gave you a second chance, remember? When you came back from Happy Volts? After all you did to me. So why don’t I get a second chance? Please, Gary, I don’t want you to hate me,” he repeats. “I won’t fuck up again.”

Gary tore Jimmy’s arm away from his shoulder. “Really?” he snapped, tears still streaming down his face.

Jimmy nods.

“Fine. I believe you,” Gary says, wiping his face and sitting down on his bed.

He stands in the center of the room, arms still crossed. Jimmy realized how awkward it felt and let them drop down to his sides. 

Gary forgave him. He wasn’t sure how he managed it, but Gary fucking forgave him.


	12. Gary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short one. sorry.
> 
> posting a new smopkins fic sometime today

Jimmy was staring at him again. The same steady, observing gaze that Gary had felt after walking back to the dorms with Jimmy on the first day of school. The same gaze Jimmy gave him on their first day of classes, in social studies, before Mandy walked in. 

Gary met his stare briefly, but broke eye contact. He was already coming to regret his decision to “forgive” Jimmy. Sure, Jimmy had given him a second chance last year, but maybe they were better off not friends. 

And Jimmy didn’t need him. He had every guy and girl in the whole school wrapped around his finger, yet he wouldn’t give up with Gary. Was Jimmy planning on using him? It didn’t seem likely that Jimmy genuinely liked spending time with him, even if he admitted to it last year during breakfast. It was a lie. Gary knew he was a lot to handle, and he couldn’t think of one reason why Jimmy wanted to stay with him.

Or why Jimmy was staring at him like that.

Gary made eye contact again, wondering how he could get Jimmy to leave him alone. The staring was starting to freak him out, and honestly, he wanted to get some schoolwork done and have his mind free of Jimmy. 

“I’m going to take a nap,” Gary lied. 

Jimmy nodded understandingly and stood up from the far end of the bed that he was sitting on. “I’ll leave you alone.” He paused, studying Gary’s face one last time in a way that made Gary uncomfortable. Gary wanted to speak up, to ask him why he was doing it or tell him to stop, but he didn’t.

“Have a nice nap, Gary.”

“Thanks,” Gary muttered, standing up and walking to the bathroom. 

After he came out and found his room empty, Gary thought about Jimmy. He wondered what he was doing now- maybe heading out to town or grabbing his skateboard from his bedroom to practice. Gary missed him, but he tried brushing it off- Jimmy was his only friend. If he was going to miss anybody, it would be him, right? 

He grabbed his backpack from the corner of his room, sat down at his desk, and started to work.


	13. Jimmy and Gary Get Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi folks. havent updated in 4 days whoopsy daisy. 
> 
> ignore the crappy format i just want italics

Now that Mandy was gone, Jimmy was showing Gary a lot more attention. And Gary wasn’t sure he liked it.

They went back to talking regularly, walking each other back and forth to classes, and sitting together at lunch. Everyone gave Jimmy a second look for it, but he didn’t seem to mind. It baffled Gary, really. Similar to last year, Jimmy had no shame about talking to Gary and treating him like a human being.

Something Jimmy had told him after his fight with Mandy came back and stuck with him.  _ I don’t care about girls anymore.  _ That was it, or something along the lines- Gary could even hear Jimmy’s voice as he said it. It was ingrained in his memory, and maybe Jimmy was telling the truth. Maybe Jimmy was just taking a… break from dating. Gary honestly couldn’t see him doing that, but anything was possible at this point. They were friends again, after all that happened. 

Gary was back on his chemistry homework, earbuds in, when someone barged into his room. He tore his earbuds out, ready to snap at the offender, before seeing it was Jimmy. “...What do you want?” Gary asked, wrapping the wire around his index finger as he spoke. “I’m busy.”

“Oh, hey. Didn’t mean to bother you.” Jimmy leaned against the doorframe. “You wanna go do something? I’m, uh, bored.” He pauses, staring at the scattered papers on Gary’s desk. “I’ll help you look up the answers later tonight, if that compensates for it.” He gave a lopsided smile, or a smirk, but it wasn’t really a smirk. It was more genuine.

Gary stood up and thought for a moment. “Uh. Why? I mean, why do you wanna…”

“Well, y’know. It’s Friday night.” There Jimmy went again, giving him that look, or checking him out. Or whatever. It made Gary’s stomach churn. “Why not?” 

_ That’s right, let’s go somewhere, so you can strangle me and throw me in the ocean or something.  _ Gary swallowed his spit. He knew he was being paranoid, but really, why would Jimmy want to go anywhere with him? 

Jimmy went on, filling up the space. “We could go, um, to the carnival, or maybe go swimming in the ocean, or get ice cream… or… I don’t know. Screw around in town? Fuck with people?” he suggested, standing up straight. “If you’re busy, though, I guess we don’t have to. I can just see if someone else wants to go.” The same lopsided smile returned to his face.

“Yeah. We can go.” Gary took his earbuds out of his phone and set them on the desk. He knew Jimmy only added that last part to make him jealous, so he would say yes. He put his phone in his pocket and walked over to Jimmy. “Where do you…” he pauses, swallowing his spit. “Where are we going?”

“I was gonna let you pick. But the carnival, if you don’t have a preference.”

Gary nods. “Yeah. Yeah. That’s fine.” He let his hands fall to his side, before putting his thumbs through his belt loop, and then back to his side again. What was he supposed to do with his hands?

He stared down at his shoes.  _ It’s not a big deal! They’re fucking hands! Just put them in your pocket, or- _

Jimmy nodded back and took off down the hallway. Gary turned off his bedroom light and shut his door, before catching up to Jimmy.

“So you have a phone now?” Jimmy asked, presumably trying to make the situation less uncomfortable for Gary. Then Gary wondered if Jimmy felt it too- the awkwardness. Probably not. Jimmy didn’t really care about stuff like that, did he?

He almost forgot about having a phone. “Mhm. Got it last weekend.” Gary only really listened to music on it, and sometimes he messaged his dad when he would ask how things were going, but that was it. He didn’t have any friends to message, and he didn’t get the appeal of social media, aside from… memes.

“Cool. You got… Instagram? So I can talk to you?”

“No. Instagram is stupid,” Gary said stubbornly. He wondered what use Jimmy would even have for Instagram. 

“Fine. What’s your number, then?” Jimmy pushed open the door and walked down the steps, pulling his phone from his pocket. 

Truthfully, Gary didn’t know his phone number, at least not by heart. He knew the area code, but that was all. He’d only given his number to his dad. “Why do you need it?” It wasn’t like Gary was ever out of Bullworth. If Jimmy ever wanted to talk to him, he knew his class schedule and where he slept every night.

Jimmy rolled his eyes. “It’s not, like, your social security number or anything,” he teased, cracking another smile. 

“But why do you need it? You know where I am all the time.”

“I see. So you don’t want to talk to me.” He waved at Russell as he passed by. “Well, that’s okay too.” 

Gary rolled his eyes and pulled his phone out from his pocket. “Fine.” He went to his settings and read off the phone number for Jimmy, who gave him a smug look and typed it in.

“What do you want your contact thing to be?” Jimmy asked as they continued walking, passing up the gate. They were finally off campus.

“Uh, what? Just put it as Gary.”

Jimmy looked up at him. “Come on, Gary! That’s boring.” He stared up at him, and when Gary didn’t budge, he said, “Whatever. I’m changing it later, then.”

He shook his head and let out a sigh, but on the inside, Gary didn’t really care about what his stupid contact name was. He still had so many questions in his mind. Like… did Jimmy genuinely want to spend time with him, or was this something else? 

And what happened to Mandy?

Gary had a deep gut feeling that Jimmy was hiding and/or planning something, and he didn’t like it. But it was too late to turn back now. 

No, it wasn’t too late. He could still head back to the dorms and pass it off as being sick. 

Gary just really wanted to see what Jimmy was up to this time.


	14. Carnival Date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my face is breaking out for the first time in my life and i really appreciate it.
> 
> thats all just a life update

The sun was starting to set, and Jimmy knew what was coming. Neither of them had jackets on, and the temperature was expected to get a low of 44, with wind. So far, Jimmy’s… unofficial date with Gary wasn’t looking too good, but there was a chance the both of them would be so distracted that they wouldn’t even notice how cold it was. They both had on jeans or khakis, which was a start, at least… but Jimmy had short sleeves on. If he’d brought a jacket, it would be a perfect opportunity to give it to Gary like one of those stupid movie cliches, but it looked like both of them were going to be cold that evening.

He stared up at Gary, chewing the inside of his cheek as he thought about him. Gary was paying him no mind, and was instead staring at the people waiting in lines for food or games or rides. Jimmy thought they were pretty early, which was good. The place was going to be packed by eight or nine, and waiting in lines would become unbearable at that point. They managed to make it there at a quarter til seven.

Jimmy wondered if this was a bad idea. Not that he cared about large crowds or anything, but what if Gary did? What if Gary didn’t want to be here… at all? And what if Gary didn’t even like him?

That was too much to think about. And Gary was probably getting freaked out with all of this staring. Jimmy poked him in the arm. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Gary said in return, finally making eye contact. It seemed like he wanted to say something else, but he wasn’t making any attempt at getting it out. And it was almost like Gary was staring past him. Or through him. Anywhere but at him.

Jimmy swallowed his spit, suppressing the urge to reach out and put his arm around Gary’s waist, or grab his hand, or… “You scared of heights?”

“Oh.” He looked away, back at the lines of people. “No, I’m not.”

“Okay, cool,” Jimmy said. “So what do you want to do first?”

-

Jimmy was already regretting inviting Gary to the carnival. Not that Gary was doing anything wrong, but the way it was going… it felt like Jimmy’s fault.

Every time Jimmy tried to talk to him, or get his attention, he had to tug on Gary’s arm and say his name a couple times to get him to react. And Gary never had any preference, he didn’t care if they went on the Fireball or the Ferris Wheel or whatever the hell came out of his mouth that time. Jimmy was eighty percent sure that if he asked Gary about going on the damn Snoopy Planes, with seats so small he wasn’t sure either of them would be able to fit, he would say yes. It was like Gary wasn’t even listening to what he said. 

A feeling was curling and twisting in Jimmy’s stomach, and he decided to pull Gary to the side and talk to him. Really talk to him. It was obvious he wasn’t enjoying this, and Jimmy wanted to find out what he could do to salvage the situation.

Jimmy had a thought, though. What if Gary was having a panic attack? Or he wanted to go home? A panic attack was definitely possible, and Jimmy didn’t really know the symptoms, but he wanted to help Gary. 

“Hey,” Jimmy said, starting off slow. “How you feeling?” He grabbed Gary’s arm gently and pulled him to the side, next to a food stand. The smell of funnel cakes and deep fried pickles filled his lungs. 

Gary, from the outside, looked perfectly fine. But Jimmy couldn’t stand the feeling he had, and he wanted to fix it, or stop it, or something. “Fine,” Gary mumbled without much thought. “You?”

“This isn’t about me.” He looked around, saw that it was getting dark, and decided it might be time to leave. Not back to Bullworth, though. Jimmy didn’t want this thing to end so soon- it was their first date, even if Gary didn’t know it yet. “You’re, uh, zoning out. It’s okay if you’re tired, or if you don’t want to be here, or don’t like carnivals or something. We can do something else, Gary. If you want,” he said, tilting his head as he watched Gary. 

He wasn’t getting anything out of him. “Are you hungry? Or- uh, worried about something? I’ll fix it. Whatever it is,” Jimmy offered.

“I don’t know,” Gary whispered, eyes traveling down to the dirt floor. “I think…” he started, but didn’t finish his sentence.

“It’s fine, Gary,” he whispered back. “Is it the crowds? I don’t want to be here if you don’t want to be here. If you’re not having fun.”

He only shrugged, which didn’t give Jimmy much to work off of, but the gloomy look on Gary’s face made Jimmy want to act out. He looked down at Gary’s hands, and then at his shoulders, and then at his waist, again. It wasn’t a good time to make a move, especially when Gary was upset. But...

Before he knew it, Gary’s arms were around him. Gary let his chin rest on Jimmy’s shoulder, and Jimmy was vaguely aware of the people passing by next to them. Still, he didn’t care about them. He wanted to get Gary out of here. “I know somewhere else we can go, if you don’t want to stop and eat somewhere first,” he whispered, before returning the hug. Jimmy reached up and started to rub around Gary’s upper back, in a half-assed awkward shoulder massage. 

“Not hungry,” he said. “Jimmy, why did you…”

“Why did I what?” Jimmy spoke up, breaking the hug to look up at him.

Gary shook his head. “Nothing, nevermind. I want to go.”

“Okay,” Jimmy said, turning around. “It’s not far from here.” He started walking, and focused on Gary’s left hand from the corner of his eye. Jimmy could reach out and grab it if he wanted to. How would Gary react?

Well, it didn’t matter how Gary would react. Jimmy knew he would miss all of the shots he didn’t take, and if he didn’t make things clear now how he felt about Gary, he might never be able to.

Jimmy took Gary’s hand and stared forward, daring the passing carnival-goers to say anything about it. Nobody questioned him, not even other Bullworth students. Including Gary.


	15. Sleepover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if things are repeated or messed up in this chapter im sorry, had to look over this four separate times in two hours and my mind is SCRAMBLED. 
> 
> sorry for the 8 day wait too haha kind of died.
> 
> also you people know there is a part one to this right? this fic has more views than the first one and it just confuses me

“This is where you wanted to take me?” Gary asked, eyes focused on the lighthouse in the distance. He was still uneasy and frazzled from his episode at the carnival, but getting out of that place helped.

“Yep.”

Gary looked down at him. “Why?”

“Well…” Jimmy asked, starting to walk again. Gary figured he was going to the dock. “Depends. Are you tired?”

He followed, watching the gentle waves lap across the sand. Gary wasn’t sure if he was tired… in fact, he wasn’t sure how he felt at all. After what happened at the carnival, Gary’s emotions were twisted in every direction, and he was sick of it. Sick of not knowing what was happening to him, or how he felt. He was unable to answer simple questions. Are you tired? How do you feel? 

Maybe it was time to start taking his meds. Not all at once, of course, but he would go on one medication, and if things worked well then he would add another… but he was not taking those damn sleeping pills. Never again.

“I could sleep,” Gary lied. He didn’t want to make the walk all the way to Bullworth, but it seemed like things were coming to an end. Gary kind of wanted time to himself, anyway. To think things over. As much as he liked the attention from Jimmy, he was overwhelmed.

Jimmy nodded. “Well, I was gonna see if you wanted to go swimming. But it’s okay.” Jimmy kept walking, despite what Gary said. 

Swimming? It was way too cold for that, and he didn’t want to walk back to Bullworth in dripping wet clothes. Unless Jimmy wanted to skinny dip, which would be… worse, somehow. “Why would I want to go swimming?”

“You have to live a little, Gary. But if you want to sleep, that’s okay.” He pulled something silver out of his pocket, and a twinge of panic ran through Gary’s chest. A knife. Jimmy was going to kill him?

No. Why would Jimmy want to kill him? And if Jimmy did want to kill him, why would he want to take him to the carnival and go swimming first?

Well, that was obvious. The carnival was a way to get him out of the dorms, and then… swimming… Jimmy could drown him. That was it. 

“What is that?” Gary choked out, before his eyes focused in the dim light from the moon and he realized what it was. A keyring. God, he was an idiot. “Uh… I mean, where are we going?”

Jimmy picked one from the batch and held it between his index and ring finger. “You see that beach house?” He could see that Jimmy had a fair amount of keys on him, and he wondered where they all went to. One key went to the library, he knew that for a fact, because Jimmy snuck him in one night to talk to him. He cringed thinking about what he confessed in there. But the other ones? The other keys? Maybe they went to other places in the school, or even buildings in town. Why would anybody trust Jimmy enough to give him a key?

“Yeah, the house that we’re standing right in front of, and probably going to get shot or arrested for trespassing?” He considered the possibility that one of the keys went to the beach house. It made sense. ”Or breaking and entering?”

“It’s mine.” He smiled and turned around to face Gary. “But it’s cute. When you worry and stuff.”

Gary swallowed his spit. He didn’t know what to say to that, so he just kept walking, staring at the building as it drew nearer. Jimmy owned a beach house. Of course he did. The question was why? And how? Who gave that to him? He wasn’t old enough to have a mortgage or anything. 

Was he the only person who knew about it? Gary wondered if Jimmy brought all of his girlfriends here and had sex with them, but then he remembered Mandy in Jimmy’s bedroom that night… ugh. 

They climbed the wooden ramp leading up to the house. Jimmy tried the key a few times, before switching it out for another one. The second key worked immediately. Jimmy pulled the door open and stepped aside, letting Gary go inside first.

Once he was inside, Jimmy set his keys down on a table that was right next to the door, and turned the lights on. Gary was amazed that the place wasn’t run down, and Jimmy kept the heat running while he wasn’t there. It was actually well-furnished. Jimmy had a… bar, for some reason, and an L-shaped couch in the corner, facing a TV. Gary guessed that’s where they were going to sleep.

“And, uh, why do you have a beach house?” Gary asked, trying to bring the topic back up. He wanted to ask why Jimmy brought him here, too, but he had a feeling he would find out soon.

Jimmy crossed the room and opened a closet. “You want pajamas?” he asked, pulling out a few blankets and tossing them over to the couch, ignoring Gary’s question completely.

“Why do you have a beach house?” Gary asked again. “I’m okay. I don’t think anything you have would fit me. You’re short. And fat,” he added on for extra effect. He was mostly joking, though- Jimmy was only stocky because he had so much muscle.

“I beat the preps in boxing, and they gave it to me. Used to be their hideout. Guess that imaginary fat came in handy, huh?” Jimmy continued, tossing a shirt and a pair of pants at him anyway. Both of them dropped to the floor, due to Gary’s late reaction. “Just see if it fits. Unless you wanna sleep in your uniform, then I don’t care.”

Gary stared at Jimmy before leaning down to pick them up. He didn’t want to sleep in his uniform. While Jimmy was busy still rummaging through his other clothes, Gary threw his vest off, unbuttoned his shirt, and put Jimmy’s new one over his head. It was actually too big for Gary, but it made sense. Lots of people slept in oversized shirts. 

Jimmy turned around, now with his own pajamas in hand. “Feel better?”

He nodded, another lie. Gary, again, didn’t know how he felt, and too much was happening to try and process it. It was mostly Jimmy, being confusing, and too nice, and…

“What?” Jimmy asked.

Gary looked down at the pair of pajama pants in his hand, then back up at Jimmy. “...Huh? What?”

“You were staring at me. I dunno. You looked pretty concerned.” 

“Sorry,” he said back. “Just thinking. Oh, can you… turn around? Real quick?”

Jimmy tilted his head. “You’re not cha-... well, whatever. It doesn’t matter. I can.” He closed the closet door and took off to the other side of the room, near the bar, and started to change his own clothes. Jimmy wasn’t quite facing the wall, but wasn’t facing Gary, either. 

That was enough for him. He looked down at his pajama pants again- plaid black and white- and took off his belt. He glanced at Jimmy again, and absently wondered if this was what sleepovers were like. He never had any as a kid- everyone in Bullworth hated him too much in elementary school to trust him in their house- but this… this was the same thing, right? 

This was a sleepover.

Gary smiled to himself as he pulled off his pants and put the new ones on. This was a sleepover, minus the parents and the other kids and the video games and the chips and the pizza and… well, all of the other things that were normally at a sleepover. But that was okay, Gary didn’t care about those things to begin with, and everybody else in Bullworth sucked. He would rather be with Jimmy.

He gathered his clothes and walked over to the bar, setting them on the corner. Gary took his shoes off, too, but left his socks on.

“Are you hungry yet? I know you didn’t go to dinner.” Jimmy wasn’t fully dressed yet- he still had his shirt off- but he didn’t seem to care if Gary was watching him change. Gary really couldn’t explain why seeing Jimmy shirtless, or having Jimmy watch him change was uncomfortable, but it was. 

“I’m not,” Gary said, averting his gaze.

Jimmy pulled his shirt over his head and sighed. “Thirsty, then? I have pop. And water. And alcohol, but you don’t drink.”

No, Gary didn’t drink, but it wasn’t like he had many opportunities to drink in his life. Getting drunk sounded scary, and he didn’t want to lose more of his self-control that he already had. Not around Jimmy. “Water,” Gary mumbled, eyeing Jimmy as he opened a mini-fridge behind the bar, on the floor. He pulled out a bottled water and slid it over to Gary.

Gary uncapped it, but didn’t drink any yet. Why would he want to drink pop if they were supposed to go to sleep? 

Jimmy shut the mini-fridge and leaned on the side of the bar. “You sure you aren’t hungry?” 

“I’m sure,” he said, getting the feeling that Jimmy was going to pester him about eating all night. He unscrewed the lid on the bottle and took a few gulps, hoping Jimmy would take a hint and stop bothering him.

Jimmy grabbed a box of Cheez-Its from somewhere behind the bar and made his way to the couch, sitting down and leaning against the arm. “Okay. It’s here if you need it.” He set the box on the coffee table in the middle, looking over at Gary expectantly.

He sat down on the opposite side of the L-shaped couch. Neither of them spoke, until Jimmy grabbed the blankets and threw one over to Gary. “Do you need a light on when you sleep? Or do you want all of them to be off?” he asked, standing up to go turn the lights off.

“You can turn all of them off. But I can sleep with a lamp on.” Gary paused, setting his bottled water on the coffee table. “If that’s how you prefer or whatever.” It was awkward having Jimmy constantly ask what he needed, but Gary appreciated it. He knew it meant that Jimmy cared.

“Nah.” Jimmy flicked the switch. Gary’s eyes started to adjust to the sudden change as he groped around the couch for a pillow, finding one and setting it against the arm of the couch. He laid down and pulled the blanket over his shoulder. The blanket was one of those things someone’s grandma might have sewn for Christmas or something, but thankfully it wasn’t scratchy. 

Gary could hear the couch squeak as Jimmy sat down on his side. He listened to Jimmy fumble around with his blanket until he was comfortable.

“Why did you bring me here?” he asked without thinking. Gary knew he was annoying the shit out of Jimmy, and Jimmy probably regretted bringing him out in public to the carnival and now to his beach house, but he wanted to know. Why did Jimmy pick him? He could’ve gone with anybody in the school, someone less difficult. 

There was silence, and then more rustling on Jimmy’s side. “Don’t you just hate that place?” Gary could imagine Jimmy sitting up, or propping his head up with his hand, or turning around on the couch to face him. Not like it mattered. Neither of them could see each other anyway. “I thought you might like to get out of there.”

“Oh,” Gary whispered. “Thanks. Uh, thank you.”

“I hope you feel better, Gary. If you need anything else, just tell me. Oh… the bathroom is the one right next to the closet. On the left. In case you need to piss in the middle of the night or something.” Jimmy paused. “Sleep well.”

Gary smiled, glad that Jimmy wasn’t able to see him. The only light in the room came from the windows on the opposite side of the building. 

He turned around again, facing the back of the couch now, his nose rubbing up against the fabric. One thing was for sure, Gary felt better. He couldn’t deny that.


	16. Reflections

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i think i have an upload schedule now
> 
> a/b schedule. a. i write a chapter and b. i edit and post said chapter. might get off track because i might be moving soon and i am generally stupid but its aight

Gary was the first to wake up.

He sat up on the couch and set his blankets aside, looking around. It was still dark outside, and with the horizon showing no signs of the sun rising, he wondered what time it was. Gary pulled his knees to his chest, before remembering Jimmy.

Jimmy was across from him, somewhere in the darkness. Asleep. Or not. Gary stood up and manoeuvred around in the dark, trying his best not to trip over the coffee table or a stray barstool as he searched for his pile of clothes. He wanted his phone. Gary could figure out what time it was.

Pawing through the fabric, Gary stopped when he felt something square and hard. He pulled his phone out from the back pocket of his jeans and stood there, not yet turning it on. What was he supposed to do if it happened to be one in the morning? All he could do was sit there, or stare at Jimmy, or go through all of his shit and risk getting caught. Gary wasn’t excited by any of those ideas, but it looked like his best option was going to be staring at Jimmy as he waited for the time to pass. Unless he wanted to try going back to sleep, which he wasn’t sure would happen. Once Gary was awake, he was awake. For good.

Gary turned his phone on and groaned as the bright screen started to scathe his retinas. He turned down the brightness and read through what little notifications he had.

(603) 867-5309: Hey Gary ;)

He huffed. That had to be Jimmy, so what was with the winky face? Gary guessed he was trying to be sly or something. Gary set Jimmy’s contact name and closed iMessages, feeling a tad disappointed that nobody else had messaged him. But it wasn’t like he gave his phone number to a million people. His father had it, in case of “emergencies,” and now Jimmy. Both were asleep, and why would he want Jimmy to message him if they were in the same room?

Gary checked the time. Three AM, which wasn’t too bad, but he knew he would have to distract himself for at least four more hours, if Jimmy didn’t wake up between three and seven.

He sat back down on the couch and pulled his blanket over his legs. Instagram. That’s what Jimmy wanted to message him on initially.

After glancing over at Jimmy (or where he was supposed to be), he huffed in frustration that he wasn’t able to see his face. Gary sunk back into the couch and tried to focus, but he could only make out vague lines and shapes, like the dark couch contrasting against the bright cream colored wall. He remembered how Jimmy hugged him at the carnival, and asked for his number… was that supposed to be flirting?

No. Not flirting. Jimmy only wanted to talk to him, and he had everybody else’s number in Bullworth anyway. Friends went out and did things together all the time, and the carnival was no different. Just because lots of people went on dates there didn’t mean that…

But there was more. Jimmy held his hand as they walked to the beach. What did that mena? At the time, Gary figured it was just an attempt to calm him down. It made sense, so he tried to think of two other people that were friends- Russell and Trent, for instance- and couldn’t see it in his mind. Maybe girls would hold hands. He could see Pinky and Mandy wandering around the carnival holding hands, but not for long. So what about... him and Jimmy?

Gary considered the fact that Jimmy was way different than Russell or Trent. He was more affectionate. Jimmy cared about him in a different way than Russell cared about Trent, or Ted cared about his friends on the team, or even how Pinky cared about Mandy. It wasn’t a romantic gesture, it was a friendly gesture.

At least that’s what he kept telling himself.

Then he remembered Petey, another one of Jimmy’s friends. He couldn’t see Jimmy and Petey holding hands either. Jimmy would say that it was gross and jerk his hand away. 

But there was something else, something far more damning than anything else Jimmy had said or done to him in his (almost) two years at Bullworth. Jimmy called him cute.

Gary shook his head to himself. It was just a tease, after all. Jimmy was trying to poke fun at him, and it worked. It shut him up and got him wondering, and that was exactly what Jimmy wanted.

He lifted his phone from his lap and went to the AppStore, deciding to download Instagram. What was the harm? He could make an account with no profile picture, and make his username a bunch of random numbers, and nobody would know it was him. Or he could decide to not follow anybody, but he knew some people had private accounts. Gary hoped Jimmy wasn’t one of those people.

Another thought popped into his mind. Jimmy wouldn’t call Petey cute to “poke fun at him.” There was absolutely no way. Gary might do it to Petey, after calling him gay and teasing him relentlessly, but Jimmy wouldn’t do it. Never.

Gary let out another huff and opened Instagram once it was fully downloaded, putting in his email and some random numbers for the username. Once his account was made, he tried to search for Jimmy’s account, which wasn’t hard. Most of the profile pictures were graying old men, which meant Jimmy was pretty easy to find.

He tapped on each of Jimmy’s posts. The most recent one was a black screen, with the caption “Anyone who takes geometry DM me I’m failing,” and the post after that was a picture of a supermarket isle, with Gary’s face photoshopped on some poor man pushing a cart. The caption was “Gary at target what will he buy.” Gary had no clue what the fuck that was supposed to mean, but the post had gained 63 likes, so everyone else was in on the loop. Unfortunate.

There were a few posts after that, one of Russell’s zoomed-in face with no caption. The very first post on Jimmy’s account was another picture of Gary.

The two of them were in the basement, and Gary actually remembered Jimmy taking the picture. It was when Gary was leading him to the pit. He glanced over at Jimmy again, still frustrated that he couldn’t see him. Jimmy wrote the caption as “We trapped in Crabblesnitchs sex dungeion help.” Gary remembered those moments leading up to it, how he scolded Jimmy for fucking around in the basement, and how he felt proud of himself. Proud of himself for “outsmarting Hopkins.” Gary wondered if he would change anything, if he knew how things were to turn out.

Were things that bad, though? Here he was, in Jimmy’s beach house. Jimmy seemed to take some sort of liking to him, at least enough of a liking to keep Gary around and not sic some greasers on him. And Jimmy cared about him now. Would Jimmy care as much about him if Gary had never started working against him? Would they be in the same place today if Gary had never ended up in Happy Volts?

Gary didn’t think so. But then again, if Gary never stopped taking his meds… there was a possibility the two would have remained friends, and they would be even closer now than they already were.

He set his phone back down, still opened on the post. Jimmy kept it up, even after everything that went down. Why did he post it in the first place? Was he seriously proud to be friends with him, or at least not ashamed?

There were only three posts about people on Jimmy’s account, two of which were about him. One was Russell. No Petey, no Mandy, no Zoe. No girls whatsoever. Maybe it was because Jimmy just didn’t use Instagram that much, or he deleted his posts about his girlfriends after he broke up with each of them. There was no way to be sure.

Gary’s phone screen went black. He set his phone on the coffee table and laid back down, pulling his blanket over him. He had a lot of thinking to do.


	17. not an update

my mental health do be kinda spiraling at a rapid pace on account of all of my friends are racist cunts, my family needs immediate talk therapy, and my only joys in life are sitting in bed for 3 days reading the same book and going to walmart and sniffing all of the men's shampoo

when i come back i am gonna finish this and all of the other fics i have in progress. after that im probably going to start 2 new fics. that's all

(if it wasn't already clear i am taking a break)


	18. Pussy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i dont feel any better but i managed to fix this chapter so here it is. i'm not that proud of it which is unfortunate but i can't make everything perfect so i'm fine with how it is
> 
> edit: i also have no fuckig inspiration for this story so if anyone wants to give me an idea on what should happen next my ears are open thanks

When Jimmy woke up, Gary was already fully dressed and staring at him from the other side of the couch.

He yawned and rubbed his eyes, hoping it would get rid of the feeling of them being glued shut. Gary shifted his legs as he watched, still silent. Jimmy wondered what was up with him. Was he upset again?

“Morning, Gary.” Jimmy sat up and tore his blanket off, squinting as he turned to face the bright windows on the other side of the room. He wondered how long he slept for. He could remember being up until one AM, unable to sleep with his mind on Gary. Gary, for god’s sake, who he still wasn’t able to confess to. But he had to know if Gary felt the same way first. If he didn’t, then what was the point? 

“Hi,” Gary said. He eased his posture and sunk back into the couch cushions, but kept his eyes on Jimmy. Jimmy worried that he’d done something wrong.

And what would that be? Getting Gary out of Bullworth and flirting with him? What a crime. “You okay?” he asked, before thinking his question over. “Mad at me?”

Gary swallowed his spit. “Should I be mad at you for something?”

“If you’re not mad, then why are you staring at me like that? You seem upset.”

“I’m not.”

Jimmy stood up from where he was sitting and sat down next to Gary. “Talk to me.” He ran his tongue over the front of his teeth. Fuzzy. Gross. Jimmy didn’t have a chance to brush them last night, and he wouldn’t this morning, either, until he went back to Bullworth.

“I’m not upset,” Gary smiled, crossing his arms. This took Jimmy by surprise. “I have a question.”

“Yeah?” he asked. Jimmy was glad Gary was okay, but unnerved at the fact that Gary was staring at him when he woke up. God knows how long that went on for. Something was up, and clearly Jimmy was in some deep shit. He only hoped he would be able to get out of it, whatever it was.

Gary turned to face him, pulling his legs up onto the couch. “Would you hold hands with Petey?”

“What?” Jimmy said, grinning now. The question was so ridiculous- Petey? Where did Petey come from?

But it hit him, and his smile began to fade. Jimmy held hands with Gary last night, and he was comparing it to holding hands with Petey. Gary must’ve done some reflection when he woke up, because he was starting to figure things out. That was okay. Gary wasn’t mad… which meant things were going his way. They had to be.

“In a life or death situation, sure. Or if I was offered money.”

“Really?” Gary asked, moving closer to Jimmy on the couch. “Then why did you hold hands with me?”

Jimmy smiled again, vaguely aware he was being flirted with. “Because you’re not Petey.”

“And what’s so different between me and Petey?” he went on, lowering his voice. Gary slipped Jimmy’s hand into his own, their faces only inches apart now. Jimmy tried to answer, but couldn’t, his mind too cloudy to think and throat too scratchy to talk.

He knew the difference, alright. Gary was cuter. Gary made his heart flutter and caused him many sleepless nights. And Petey was just kind of annoying, but useful, hence him sticking around. “You…”

“Yeah? I?” Gary urged.

“You, uh…” Jimmy said, letting his head rest against the couch. He stared up at him, shocked that Gary could make him feel this way. Gary could flirt. He always thought he would be the one to make the moves.

Jimmy focused on his eyes, wondering how he should even answer in the first place. There was no way this could go wrong. If Gary was flirting, it meant he liked him back. With that assurance, he was finally able to speak. “Cuter.”

“I’m cuter, huh?” 

“Wayy cuter,” Jimmy slurred, staring up at Gary with that dumbass smile on his face. This was happening, and he could barely comprehend it. Hopefully Gary would ask him out, because he wasn’t sure if he would be able to get anything out when the time came. 

Unless this was something else.

Gary didn’t say anything in response, but the smile came back to his face. “Didn’t know I could make you like this.”

“Uh, yeah,” Jimmy whispered. “Me neither.” He felt… stupid. And vulnerable. But at the same time, he kind of liked it. Sitting next to Gary, holding his hand- maybe it was a good thing that Gary was doing this. It meant he was ready to date. It meant he had sorted out his emotions- hopefully.

“Fucking gay,” Gary said, putting his hand on Jimmy’s thigh. “How long have you liked me?”

“Before I dated Mandy,” Jimmy admitted, chills coming down his spine as Gary rubbed his thumb against his leg. Heat rose to his face, and his head started to itch- sweat?- but he didn’t move to itch it, no matter how bad he wanted to. That was too much work.

Gary nodded. “Started this year?”

“Mhm.”

“Good to know,” he said, pulling his hand away from Jimmy’s thigh. Jimmy was disappointed, but assumed Gary was going to make another move- until he didn’t. Gary moved away from him completely. 

A pit formed in Jimmy’s stomach. What did he confess for, if this was how Gary was going to treat him? “You don’t like me back?”

“Oh. No, I do,” Gary said, leaning over and putting his shoes on.

“Then…” he mumbled, watching Gary as he laced his sneakers. 

Then why did you move away? Jimmy wanted to ask, but he decided to keep quiet. Gary was playing him. For sure. “Right. You just wanted to find out if I did, and you don’t actually like me.”

Gary turned to face him, casting an angry glare. “Why would I say I like you if I didn’t like you?”

“Well, you don’t seem like you like me. Why did you, uh, move away?”

He shrugged. “What did you want me to do?”

Jimmy wanted to scream. He didn’t. “You’re so difficult.”

“How am I difficult? I’m difficult for not reading your mind?” Gary snapped, shaking his head. “You knew I was like this before you told me.”

“Jeez, Gary. I just wanted a kiss.”

“Oh,” Gary whispered, staring at him. “What? That’s it?” Jimmy nodded. “Then why didn’t you… you could’ve just done it yourself. Idiot,” Gary said again. 

Strangely enough, Jimmy smiled. “I could barely speak. You expected me to be able to do that?”

“Not my fault you’re a pussy.” He moved closer to Jimmy again, although it wasn’t as close as Jimmy liked. 

“It is your fault, actually. Think about it.”

Gary rolled his eyes. “No. You can just do it now.”

“Wait, kiss you?” he said, hating how Gary was making him feel stupid yet again. “Are we dating? Yet?” It seemed obvious, because they both admitted to liking each other… everything felt so easy now, that things were in the open. He hoped it would stay that way.

“What else would I want you to do? And no. You didn’t ask me yet.”

“Oh.” Maybe things weren’t so easy. “So which one am I supposed to do first?”

“You think I care?”

“Yes.”

Gary huffed. “Whatever. Be a pussy. Can we go back? I want to take a shower.”

“Well, hey, if you wanted those things to happen, why don’t you do them yourself?” Jimmy suggested, crossing his arms now. 

Jimmy felt Gary’s eyes on him, a very solemn look on his face. “Because,” Gary said in a low voice. “You have to be the one to do it.”

“Why’s that?” Jimmy pressed. “Because you’re a bigger pussy than I am?”

“No,” Gary said. “You just have… it has to be you. You have to be the one to do it.”

Jimmy thought it over, and came to the conclusion that Gary was just nervous. Cute. “Okay. We’re dating now.”

“Okay,” Gary agreed.

“And I’m uh, gonna kiss you.”

Gary nodded. 

When nothing happened, Gary narrowed his eyes.

“What if we, uh…” Jimmy said, bouncing his leg. A tick his mother said his father used to have, although he never figured out who that was. “We save it?” 

Gary stared at him as if he were stupid, which was fair. “Save it for what? I didn’t know you were so scared, I thought you could get in anyone’s pants. But you can’t even kiss me.”

Jimmy was thinking it over when Gary stood up. “Pussy.” He opened the front door and left.

Idiot, Jimmy thought as he got up and started to follow after him.


	19. Dating

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey homies :) i am doing better. i finally finished writing all of this and i'm going to update every day until it's done
> 
> thanks to everyone who commented, another smopkins thing is coming up, maybe not soon but it's happening so..

“Gary.”

Jimmy had caught up to him. He shivered as the early morning air whipped past him, now walking together in Old Bullworth Vale. It was still chilly outside, but the sun had risen, and they weren’t too far from Bullworth anyway. “Gary,” he repeated, grabbing his arm.

Gary faced him. “What do you want?” He wasn’t annoyed, at least there was no annoyance that Jimmy could detect. 

“What are we doing?” he asked.

Shaking his head, Gary pulled his hand away. “What do you mean? You said we were dating now.”

“But are we keeping it a secret? Do you think that would be better, for, like, the school? I’m not ashamed to be with you,” he assured him. “Maybe we could fuck with people- you know how everyone flipped out over that picture last time.” He knew Gary didn’t have a lot of experience and probably didn’t care either way, but he wanted to get things straight. Confusion was the last thing either of them needed. He wanted to be on the same page, especially if someone asked them if they were together. 

Or asked where they had been all weekend. Plenty of people had seen them leaving the carnival. Maybe hiding the fact that they were dating was out of the question, because if people knew, what was the point?

Gary stared down at the pavement. “I don’t want people asking questions.” He turned to stare down at Jimmy. “I won’t have answers. I don’t even know why I like you. You aren’t cute.”

Jimmy punched him in the arm, but lightly. “Whatever. Why don’t you just tell them to fuck off? Like you always do?” he suggested, starting to walk again. “But we can keep it a secret. You can act like you’re mad at me for something.”

“But then it’ll be weird when we hang out or talk.”

“They don’t have to know we hang out. It’ll be okay,” Jimmy grinned.

“We’re walking together right now. And talking, you fucking idiot.” He huffed. “We can still act like friends, I don’t know if anyone would believe that we just went to the carnival together and then I got mad at you.”

Jimmy thought he was wrong, but he didn’t want to point it out. “Okay. How do you want me to answer when people ask where we went? After, I mean.”

“You can say we stayed up all night. Or I went back home and you… did whatever.”

Jimmy remembered how they held hands. What was a good excuse for that? They were both cold, sure, but that’s an excuse he pulled on a different girl to hold hands with her last year- not that he could remember which girl it was.

Maybe Jimmy was just worrying too much. Maybe nobody actually cared, and when they went back, everything would be back to normal, minus the fact that he had Gary now. 

Of course, Jimmy was wrong. He was the king of Bullworth, and people were bound to have some questions.


	20. Rumors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry to tell you but most of the chapters from here on out are going to be a little short

“H… Hey, Jimmy! Where have you been? Y’know, recently?” Petey asked, his hand on the back of the couch, trying to look “normal.” To Jimmy, it was blatantly obvious that he was asking about him and Gary. Petey was too dumb to disguise it.

Jimmy cocked his head to the side. “Yeah? Why you asking?” He knew what the gig was, and he wasn’t just going to come out and lie. Not yet- he had to act suspicious first, that was how he normally approached things.

Petey released his grip on the couch, standing up straight. “...Just asking.”

He tried to remember what it was that Gary told him to say. Gary wanted to keep the relationship a secret, because he didn’t want all of the questions and so much attention.. so he had to lie. “Walked Gary to his house. Ran around town with Zoe for a bit,” he dismissed. Gary left to go take a shower and brush his teeth, so it looked like he was going to be alone handling everyone’s questions. That was okay- he knew how easily Gary would get overwhelmed.

“Oh.” Jimmy nodded, starting to walk off to his room, when Petey followed. “Hey- you know there are rumors now? That you like him?”

“Oh, sure.” Jimmy thought he was doing a good job of lying so far, but Petey gave him a look that said otherwise. “What?”

Petey shook his head. “You do?”

“Are you stupid? Why would I like him?” he asked, his hand on the doorknob to his bedroom. What could he say to make Petey believe him? “He tried to kill me less than a year ago. I only took him to the carnival because I felt bad for him, and it’s better than being here, I thought getting out somewhere would make him feel better. Why would I date someone who can’t go two minutes without having a panic attack or psychotic breakdown?”

Jimmy paused in his tracks, realizing what he just said- why would he date Gary? Petey never brought up dating, only the fact that people thought Jimmy had a thing for him… it looks like he was fucked, unless he could dismiss it.

Thankfully, Petey overlooked this completely. “You never know with you. There are rumors you hooked up with Earnest and Eunice at the beginning of last year, when you were still new to this place.”

“What?”

“Yeah. I mean, you didn’t, did you? That would just be weird. Oh, and Vance.” Petey stared down at the wooden flooring. “Well, you’re gonna have to deal with everyone else. I can try and stand up for you if you want, but it won’t do much. You know how people… feel about me,” he said in a sullen tone, dismissing his self-deprecation with a small laugh.

Well, he did fuck Vance- but Eunice? Earnest, for god’s sake? Eunice wasn’t that bad, but Jimmy would never stoop as low as Earnest. Not even for money. 

“Who started these rumors?” Jimmy asked. Not that he actually cared- he knew exactly where they came from. The carnival. 

Petey shrugged. “Uh, I have to get going. I don’t think it was only one person that started them, and you can’t just fix this by beating everyone.. see you, Jim.”

He rolled his eyes. “Who did you hear it from?”

“Well, just overhearing people in the cafeteria…”

“Who?”

“Uh, well, I heard Pinky talking about it with the other Preps. But I don’t think that’s where it came from.”

Jimmy nodded, glad he could get at least something out of Petey. “Cool. Did they say anything else?”

“You held hands with Gary, and you two kissed.”

“Kissed?” he demanded.

“Yep. I have… homework. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” Petey said, stepping out of the room. “Bye.”

Jimmy sat down on the edge of his bed. “Bye.”

He let his elbow rest on his thigh and started chewing on his fingernail, wondering where the word “kiss” came from. They did hold hands. They did. He hugged Gary, at one point, but he was too scared to kiss him, even in private. There was no way someone could mistake a hug for a kiss.

Jimmy wasn’t sure what he expected. Bullworth was full of idiots.


	21. Eavesdropping

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have this one and my other smopkins fic fully written. i dont know when i will post any new fics or update the other one. 
> 
> i am planning on writing another smopkins thing but if things get worse this week it might take longer so ? 
> 
> just wanna say i am not proud of these last six chapters but i want to get them over with

Gary sat on the other side of the door, listening to Jimmy and Petey talk. His original plan was to take a shower, brush his teeth, and then finish his homework, but… Petey was asking one too many questions, and he wanted to make sure Jimmy got everything right.

He’d gotten as far as taking his shoes and his shirt off before he heard them talking. Gary sat there, the cold painted wood pressed onto his bare back. 

“Oh,” Petey said. He was still a good distance away from his bedroom, so it was a little hard to hear, but… they were coming closer. “Hey- you know there are rumors now? That you like him?”

Gary tried to imagine Jimmy’s facial expression when he tried to think over a response. He wasn’t bad at acting, was he? “Oh, sure,” Jimmy said. Gary grit his teeth and shook his head. What an idiot. He was supposed to be denying everything. “What?” 

“You do?” he heard Petey ask. It was possible that Jimmy was being sarcastic when he said “sure,” but if he was, Petey wasn’t catching on.

“Are you stupid? Why would I like him?” Jimmy snapped. Gary smiled- he was coming to his senses. If Jimmy could keep his story straight, this could work. “He tried to kill me less than a year ago. I only took him to the carnival because I felt bad for him, and it’s better than being here, I thought getting out somewhere would make him feel better. Why would I date someone who can’t go two minutes without having a panic attack or psychotic breakdown?”

What Jimmy said hit him. Hard. Gary blinked, trying to take in the fact that those words had actually come out of Jimmy’s mouth. Was all of that necessary? He knew Jimmy was just trying to throw Petey off of their relationship, but…

But?

What if he really meant it?

Gary stood up, but he went little too fast. He caught himself on the wardrobe and held his stomach, wanting to cry and scream and puke all at once. He tried telling himself that Jimmy didn’t mean anything by it, but those words stung. They stung so bad that he completely overlooked Jimmy’s slip-up.

Was Jimmy faking the whole thing? Their relationship? Gary shook his head. He didn’t know for sure, but he wanted some time to think it over. And plus, he knew exactly what he needed.

A shower and a nice, long nap. Maybe that would stop him from overreacting.


	22. Baby Steps

Jimmy, concerned that Gary hadn’t come out of his room in over three hours, couldn’t help wanting to ease his wandering mind. He felt silly for worrying, because Gary was probably laying in bed and doing his homework, like he said, but he still wanted to check. Wouldn’t Gary come out after showering and talk about the rumors? They agreed to not act mad at each other, but what if… Jimmy had done something, and Gary was actually mad?

He stood up and stood in the center of his room. There was no way Gary was mad at him, he didn’t do anything. Or Gary could be mad for no reason, that happened sometimes. Jimmy decided there was only one way to know- to check.

He left his bedroom and crept over to Gary’s, not bothering to knock before opening the door. The room had a faint scent of the school’s laundry detergent, and it was pretty empty like it had been last year. It looked like Gary was laying in bed, maybe resting his eyes, when Jimmy saw the opened pill bottle on the dresser.

His heart jumped, but as he moved closer, he saw that the bottle was filled to the top. Gary couldn’t have taken more than one or two pills. Thank god. That ruled out the possibility of an overdose. He really couldn’t help worrying about it- after all, there was no telling what Gary was thinking, and anything could’ve happened between the time they got back to Bullworth and now. Gary could’ve decided there was no reason to live, or that Jimmy didn’t care about him. But Gary hadn’t overdosed, there was no way.

Lifting the orange bottle from the dresser, he read the label- zolpidem, which meant Ambien. It made sense. Gary was overwhelmed, and he wanted to take a nap, even if he’d slept recently. That was okay. As long as he was happy, and… alive. Just to confirm his suspicions, Jimmy placed a hand on Gary’s forehead. Warm. He could hear Gary breathing, too. 

Good.

Gary was cute when he slept, in Jimmy’s opinion at least. The irritable expression that was usually on his face was gone. Jimmy leaned down and kissed Gary on the forehead, and when Jimmy was sure he wouldn’t wake him up, kissed him again on the lips. After lingering and staring down at him for a few more minutes, he left Gary’s side and decided to go find something to distract himself with. 

Baby steps. Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to kiss him next time.


	23. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i hope you people know there is a part one to this fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23345485/chapters/55927273
> 
> that one has half of the views that this one has and they have the same amount of chapters??? anyway heres the chapter

Jimmy tried starting on an english essay for Ms. Neumeister, but soon grew bored of it. He let his pencil drop on top of his notebook and absently wondered if anybody wanted to go out to town- but then realized he didn’t want to be around anybody. Not unless it was Gary. Jimmy missed him, and badly. 

He ended up laying in his bed and listening to music, his earbuds in and shoes off. Jimmy’s hands were relaxed behind his head. Most of the songs he listened to were sad, since he wasn’t busy and he had a chance to think about them. Not that he was sad, but he missed Gary, even if he was only asleep in the other room and could go wake him up at any time.

Jimmy got tired of sad songs and started a playlist of music that Ted recommended, when he got the feeling that someone was watching him. Quickly, he sat up and craned his neck to look at the doorway.

Gary was there, looking worn out and upset.

“Hey,” Jimmy said softly. “Shut the door. Come here.” He paused his music and set his phone down on the bedspread. 

He did as Jimmy said, laying down next to him on the bed. Without a word, Jimmy put his arm around Gary and kissed him on the lips. He hadn’t planned it, but it felt right, and Gary looked… so upset. “Are you okay? Did you have a nice nap?”

“You checked on me?” Gary whispered, moving closer to him. “I guess.”

“Yeah. Of course I checked on you, it doesn’t take three hours to shower and brush your teeth,” he teased, poking Gary in the cheek. “Talk to me.”

Gary shook his head. “It’s nothing. Shut up.”

“Come on,” Jimmy coaxed. “You’re not. Did you do something? If you talked to anybody, we can fix it, you know. We don’t have to keep it a secret.”

“No. I listened to you… uh, when you were talking to Petey and I got upset because I thought you were being serious. I know you weren’t. I’m just,” Gary paused, turning to look back at the door. After he reassured himself that nobody was there, he lowered his voice considerably. “I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

Jimmy didn’t quite remember what he told Petey- it seemed so long ago that it was irrelevant to him now- but for Gary’s sake, he tried to recall what he said. Something about Gary having panic attacks. “I’m sorry. I thought, um, trash-talking you would make Petey believe me. I don’t feel that way. I promise.” He reached up to stroke Gary’s hair, which was a first for him. Jimmy was glad Gary was having an easy time admitting what was bothering him, but he felt a pang of regret for saying all of those things. “You’ve been through a lot, okay? But I don’t feel that way at all. I promise.” He continued running his fingers through Gary’s hair, hoping it was soothing to some extent.

Gary nodded. “It worked. I don’t know,” he murmured, burying his face further in Jimmy’s comforter. “Does it bother you that I always get upset?”

He chuckled in a hopeful attempt to make Gary feel better. “We wouldn’t be dating if it bothered me. Nothing about you bothers me. I promise,” he whispered. 

“Don’t fucking lie,” Gary said. 

“I’m serious. Aside from when you turned the school against me, but that was forever ago. And it’s over now. I know you wouldn’t do anything like that again.” Jimmy paused, letting his hand trail down to Gary’s neck. “And I love you.”

Gary stared up at him, unbelieving. “Why?”

“Same reason you like me. I don’t fucking know. You’re cute, that must have something to do with it,” he said, half-joking. Jimmy knew why he loved Gary- he believed that Gary could get better, and genuinely wanted to. Plus, he was cute. And the two of them had been through a lot together. “I promise. I do love you.”

Gary didn’t say anything to this. He only moved away from the blanket, lifting it up and settling beneath it. “I don’t care if people know anymore.” His tone was gloomy, but Jimmy thought that it wasn’t necessarily true. Maybe everything Jimmy had said to him was kicking in.

“Okay,” Jimmy whispered, lifting the blanket and pressing his body against Gary’s. “Are you still tired?”

“No. But you are, right?”

Jimmy shrugged. “I could sleep.” It wasn’t exactly dark outside, nor was it late, but it was around 7, and it was getting there. “But I want to spend time with you.”

Without speaking, Gary held out his hand. Jimmy fumbled with the wires and gave him an earbud, assuming that’s what he wanted, turning on his phone to switch to a playlist he thought Gary might enjoy more. Since frat boy hype music was more Ted’s style, after all.

Maybe things weren’t going to work somewhere down the road and him and Gary would have to break up. Maybe dating Gary was a horrible, terrible mistake, and things were only going to get worse. But Jimmy loved him, and he was grateful that Gary liked him back.

Gary held the earbud by the wire and put it in his left ear, staring down at Jimmy’s phone as he hit play. The two of them sat in silence, not talking or doing anything- but it was a comfortable silence. Jimmy shut his eyes.

He hoped Gary was as just as happy as he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi homies
> 
> i am not happy with how the end turned out at all but im glad i finished it and that i had fun writing it. i made some friends too which was nice :)
> 
> going to update/finish my other smopkins fic soon (today or tomorrow) and i'm like 70% sure im posting two new smopkins things so yeah
> 
> bye homies


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